Does the court of the elect “mortify” the Charter and the representation? The current issue dates back to ’63. And there were no regional councils and no EU parliament

There are those who define the court of the elect a “threat“For the Italian Constitution, who speaks of a”attack democracy ”of our country and that, like the National Committee for the No, they think that a“ design of institutional upheaval“Contrary to the spirit of the Fathers of the Republic. The tone of politicians, lawyers and newspapers who oppose the referendum scheduled for September 20 and 21 is increasingly heated. At stake is a reform of 4 articles, approved in vast majority last October, which actually modified a passage of the Charter introduced only in 1963. When the Constituent Assembly definitively approved the text, in fact, it established that the seats in Parliament should vary according to the number of citizens. The project envisaged the election of a deputy each 80 thousand inhabitants and one senator for every 200 thousand. It was at the beginning of the sixties when it was decided, with a special law of constitutional rank, to establish 945 the members of the two Chambers. At that time, however, the Regional councils – whose members today are almost 900 – and there was no direct choice of the most 70 MEPs in Strasbourg belonging to Italy. In both cases, they are institutions with which they share Rome a slice of legislative power and guarantee the representation of citizens at all levels of decision-making.

The alarm raised by supporters of No – To exasperate the tones in the referendum debate, he thought about it in early summer Marco Damilano its L’Espresso. In an editorial published in the late June issue of the weekly, entirely devoted to No, the editor writes that the referendum is a “celebration of division and disunity, the triumph of anti-politics“In your opinion, the goal is”crumble another piece of the little prestige that still remains in the Chambers ”. The Democratic Committee for the No, including Giorgio gori me Tommaso Nannicini, argues instead that in the event of a Yes victory, “entire territories (and Italians abroad) will be private of their representatives in Parliament. “The spokesman for Las Sardinas Mattia Santori in an interview with Republic speaks of “mortified representation”, while the former minister dem Anna Finocchiaro – who in 2008 proposed a reduction in parliamentarians similar to the current one – points a finger at the “threat to pluralism“, An issue that was” one of the obsessions of the constituents. ” Then there are the constitutionalists by No, signatories of a document on risks for i fundamental principles of the Constitution, according to which the idea that national representation “can be absorbed” by other elective bodies (like the European Parliament or regional councils) goes “against all historical evidence and against the jurisprudence “of the Council. It is enough to read, they explain, the matters that the Charter attributes to the legislator” to have an idea ofimportance of the Chambers “.

The law of 63 and the (later) birth of the Regional Councils – Given that the relevance of Parliament in our country is not under discussion, nor is it among the topics of debate, it should be remembered that the current structure of Montecitorio and Palazzo Madama dates back to the sixties. Before the introduction of the constitutional law of February 9, 1963, No. 2, the number of parliamentarians was variable. In First period of Republican history (1948-1953), for example, those elected were 915. Even less in the second: 827, of which only 237 in the Senate (figures not very different from the 200 expected in the event of a Yes vote). In any case, both at the time of the approval of the Constitution and the 1963 law, the representation of citizens in the Regions had not yet been foreseen. To arrive at the direct election of the councilors, we must wait for a special law of February 1968, intended by then Moro government.

Much of the legislative powers remain for decades in the hands of Parliament, but with the modification of the Title V of the Constitution (later integrated several times by the Council) many abilities they are entrusted to the Regions. Rome has the exclusive legislation in matters of foreign policy and security, markets, public law and citizenship, border protection and environmental protection. Then there are the skills competitors between State and territory (international relations, labor, education, civil protection, transportation, health, tax system, communications) and finally the exclusive of the Regions that include everything that is not explicitly included in the previous boxes. The regional councilors, therefore, already carry out some functions that in the past were entrusted to parliamentarians. A task that, among other things, in some regions is paid exactly as in Rome. This is the case of the Sicily, a region with special status where until a few years ago the basic salary ran out 10 thousand euros net: practically the same amount that a senator receives each month between allowances, allowances and various reimbursements.

The 2011 policy cuts – The first cut in representation (and in the costs of politics) was introduced in the summer of 2011 by the then Minister of Finance Giulio Tremonti, struggling with a financial storm in our country that in a few months would have caused the fall of the last Berlusconi government. Standards that haven’t been in place for months and are retired by Mario monti in 2012 in the famous decree on review of expenses. What did they foresee? Reducing more 1,100 Regional Councilors present in Italy at that time (from a minimum of 20 for the smallest regions to a maximum of 80 for those with a population greater than 8 million inhabitants), a linear cut of wages, the prohibition of accumulation of compensation, the obligation to report the loans and their income. All the measures at that time called out loudly by the main newspapers, intellectuals and political parties and conceived with a single objective: “Putting a concrete barrier waste of public money which, instead of being used to improve the res publica, is usually used as a private res, losing sight of the end of policy”, Then Prime Minister Monti declared at a press conference. In essence, the “main way to improve the voter-voter relationship and curb the growing and worrying discontent with politics ”. Even at that time, the assumed savings were not huge (an estimate of Sole24Ore I speak of 64 million euros a year to which to add another one hundred million derived from the reduction of the Councilors), but few – unlike today – objected to speak of “ridiculous” benefits for the public treasury or “offense” to the Constitution.

The role of the European Parliament – In the horde of almost 2 thousand representatives (national and territorial) that Italian citizens can count on today, since the late seventies (1979) also MEPs. Each member country of the European Union chooses a quota based on its population: they left Italy in the last legislature 76. A group of elected officials that neither the constituent fathers nor the Moorish government of ’68 had considered. In fact, they also have a portion of the legislative power. The EU has exclusive competence in matters of Customs union, monetary and trade policy, while competing with states in Internal market, social policies, agriculture and fisheries, environment, transport, energy, security, health, research, space. Not to mention that the EU treaties provide for a number of regulatory sources, such as i regulations, which apply to all member states without the necessary ratification by national parliaments. A limitation of national sovereignty allowed – argues the Council – by Article 11 of the Constitution, according to which Italy “allows, under conditions of parity with other States, in sovereignty limitations necessary for an order that ensures peace and justice among nations; promotes and favors international organizations for this purpose ”.