2022 Italian referendum

The Article 75 of the Italian Constitution provides the possibility to hold a referendum to abolish a law or part of it. According to the law 352/70, the request for a referendum must come either from 500,000 signatures or from the approval of the resolutions voted by at least five regional councils. The signatures must be collected on special forms with the object of the referendum on it and they must be authenticated by a public officer. All Italian citizens who are able to vote can sign a referendum. Starting from August 2021, it is possibile to collect signatures by using a digital ID too.[2]

The signatures (or the resolutions) must be filed by 30 September of each year at the Central Office for the referendum at the Court of Cassation. The filing of the signatures can't take place in the 365 days prior to a general election and in the six months following the election, in order to avoid any overlapping between the referendum and the general election. The Central Office must evaluate by 15 December the compliance of the rules of the proposed referendum according to the previous prerequisite, by checking the validity of each signature collected or if the law the referendum intend to abolish is still in force.

Following the approval of the prerequisite of the proposed referendum, the Constitutional Court must set the date of the deliberation in the Council Chamber no later than 20 January of the following year, and it must appoint a Judge Rapporteur. The Constitutional Court, after the meeting in the Council Chamber, must pronounce if the requested referendum is allowed or rejected. According to the second paragraph of the Article 75 of the Constitution, referendum having as their object taxes, the State budget, amnesty and the international treaties cannot take place. If a referendum is allowed, the President of the Republic sets the date for the referendum, which must take place in a date between 15 April and 15 June. A referendum, in order to be valid, must be voted by at least 50% + 1 of the people entitled to vote, and it must be approved by the 50% + 1 of the voters.[3][4]

Maurizio Turco, Secretary of the Radical Party, announced the intention to start collecting signs for a new referendum.[5] During an interview at Porta a Porta on May, the leader of Lega Matteo Salvini said he would join the Radical Party's campaign, since he believed that a justice reform won't never be approved in the Parliament with the Democratic Party and the Five Star Movement.[6]

On 2 July the Committee Just Justice Referendum started the collection of signatures, hoping to get 1 million signs before September.[7][8] Secretary of the Democratic Party Enrico Letta defined the referendum as «propaganda», accusing Salvini of wanting to buy time, also announcing that he wanted to file his own bill on justice.[9] The President of the National Magistrate Association Giuseppe Santalucia also criticized the usage of the referendum, preferring the justice reform under discussion in Parliament.[10] On 7 August, Salvini claimed they were close to the goal of 500,000 signs.[11]

The Cannabis Committee asked for an extension of the due date of the collection of signatures and the filing to the Court of Cassation since the cities were delaying the delivery of the certifications of the signatures.[12] The Council of the Ministers approved on 29 September an extension for the collection of signatures to 31 October, with the desertion of the ministers of Lega, since it would have benefited the cannabis referendum they were against.[13]

Although the committee claimed to have collected at least 700,000 signs for each of the six referendum, way above the threshold of 500,000 valid signs required, on 30 October the committee filed the referendum to the Court of Cassation with the support of the resolutions voted by nine regional councils led by the centre-right coalition: Basilicata, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Lombardia, Piemonte, Sardegna, Sicilia, Umbria and Veneto. This choice led to a loss of 2,5 million euro of reimbursement expected from the collection of signatures, thus excluding the Radical Party as representatives of the promoting committee since only the regional delegates (led by the centre-right) will be able to fund TV ads and collects subsidies as representatives of the referendum committee.[14][15][16]

On February, an order of the day promoted by Lega asked to the government to merge in a single day the election of the 2022 Italian local elections and the referendum.[17] The merger between two different kinds of elections are regulated by the Legislative Decree n. 98/2011, which doesn't include the abrogative referendum since the abstension can be used as a way to oppose the referendum (to be approved, an abrogative referendum must reach at least 50%+1 of turnout). The only time an abrogative referendum was held along with another election was in 2009, when the 2009 Italian referendum was merged to the second round of the 2009 Italian local elections.[18] Finally, the Council of the Ministers approved the merger of the first round of the Italian local elections and the referendum in a single day, on 12 June.[19] Only 8,5 million voters will be called for the local elections during the first round, while the quorum requires at least 23 million of voters.[20]