Referendum of 8 and 9 June, Tlon: “How can politics invite not to go to the polls?”

This article on the referendum of 8 and 9 June is published in the number 21 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until May 20, 2025.

In a country where theAstanceism has been the party with more consensus for yearsPolitics should ask yourself how to build a new trust and bring people back to the polls. On the contrary, these days are the declarations of Ignazio La Russapresident of the Senate and therefore second office of the State, who said without hesitation, compared to referendum of 8 and 9 June: “I will propagate so that people are at home.”

In a few weeks, in fact, we will vote for Five abrogative referendums on crucial issues such as work, security and citizenshipyet very little is being talked about and there is a concrete risk that the quorum is not reached. Because the referendums are valid, the vote must go to the vote half of the entitled more onebut at the moment a third of Italian citizens does not even know that it is voted.

La Russa’s statements are not new to Italian politics: in 1991, Bettino Craxi he invited the Italians to “go to the sea»Instead of voting for the referendum on the single preference, which was supported by a large transversal front. Craxi knew that, if he had passed, that referendum would have weakened his party and changed the balance of power, and therefore chose an extreme and contradictory way: to tell people not to exercise their sovereignty. That choice of strength, in reality, marked the beginning of the descending parable of his political career and the defeat of the First Republic.

How can politics invite you not to go to the polls? The only plausible reason is that the collective action of citizens is theme, especially when the questions concern issues of public interest – such as work – which can meet an agreement that exceeds divisions between the parties. Still, if politics is afraid of popular vote, the paradox is that on the contrary Whoever has the right to vote today he feel they will not count anythingof not having power, of not being able to change things, and therefore abstain.

In a context like this, the responsibility of politics and institutions would then be needed, because the growing disaffection of people – especially of the youngest – can no longer be ignored. Should be committed to reconstruct that bond of trusted Even at the cost of endangering themselves, that is, even when those choices go against their ideas and programs.

At a time when more and more people observe a world in flames in which human rights are denied e They do not see a peaceful future on the horizonthe institutions should intercept the malaise and reaffirm theexercise of democracyremembering that the vote is an exercise of power that makes sense if done together and if it involves as many people as possible.

Moreover, when politics expresses itself against popular vote, it is underlining how much do you count the preference of each of us. Which is a small thing taken by itself, but which represents one of the last remaining lay rites, because it reminds us that we are not isolated individuals, but that we are part of an interdependent company.

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