Referendum, Carlassare: “If the No passes, nothing will change. Fewer parliamentarians? What matters is their relationship with the voters”

“If he Not, nothing would come more changed. In particular, not even the electoral law“And with the current one,” the choice of who will be elected is made solely by addresses parties and it is towards them that the elected representatives feel responsible, completely ignoring the relationship with votersTherefore, the fears of those who fear that a Parliament will be reduced to 600 members is less representative: “In this situation it is not the number of parliamentarians that matters as much as their relationship with the voters. If they feel no responsibility towards us, what democracy are we talking about? ”. It is for these reasons constitutionalist Lorenza Carlassare explains, in an interview with The Republic, because you are going to vote Yes to the referendum in the court of parliamentarians.

Carlassare, who in 2015 was one of the first signatories of the call for No to the constitutional referendum promoted by Matteo renzi, affirms that he has “many doubts” because, in fact, the crux of the electoral law remains unresolved. L ‘Start of the reform in the classroom before the vote on September 20 and 21 is the condition set by the secretary Pd Nicola Zingaretti to support the Yes, as it is one of the corrective provided by the majority agreement that led the Democrats, last October, to give the final approval to the reform in Parliament. It is clear, the constitutionalist warns, that approving even a single commission a new electoral law in the next 20 days is not realistic, “and that’s where the uncertainties come.” However, “I think that if the No passed, nothing would change. In particular, the electoral law would no longer be modified. With the Yes there is at least the hope“.

The electoral law “is not indifferent, it is the basis of the entire constitutional political system” since “the representation plays a fundamental role. “It is a distorted representation, such as the one provided by the electoral laws that the Constitutional Court rejected, it alters the result of the popular consultation and, consequently, alters democracy. The will of the voters it is in no way respected and above all it is Irrelevant. The problem of political responsibility ”towards voters is also fundamental. “The chosen one”, is the reasoning, “has the right to exercise a power that is conferred on him by the people only if then respond to who voted. Today this seems completely I forget“Because“ if we look at the electoral laws of the last decades we see that in reality with blocked lists the choice of who will be chosen is made solely by party leadership. And of them, on whom their future political career depends, the elected representatives feel responsible. And therefore they are ready to support any indication given to them. “

In short, the problem is certainly not reducing the number of elected officials. Apart from the fact that in the event of a Yes victory, the relationship between parliamentarians and the population will be approximately 1 for every 100,000 inhabitants, higher than Germany, France and the UK“In this situation it is not so much the number of parliamentarians that matters but their relationship with the voters. If we are not represented, if they do not feel any responsibility towards us, what democracy are we talking about? ”