First the parliamentarians cut you and then they screw you with blocked price lists (by P. Becchi and G. Palma)
Article by Paolo Becchi and Giuseppe Palma in Libero yesterday, 12 September:
They take us for a ride. The Democratic Party had subordinated its Yes to the referendum on the " cut of parliamentarians " to the approval of an electoral law that would correct the lower popular representation in Parliament, but the Constitutional Affairs Committee in the House adopted on Thursday the basic text of this new electoral law, the Germanicum , which will be examined in the Montecitorio chamber starting from 27 September, that is, after the referendum. No corrective, as Zingaretti had requested, a bad law that only aggravates any reduction in the number of parliamentarians.
The Germanicum introduces a proportional electoral system with a threshold on a national basis of 5%, with the right of the tribune for those lists that – although not reaching the threshold at national level – obtained 5% in at least three districts, in two regions in the Chamber or in a constituency in the Senate. All without preferences, that is to say with the system of blocked price lists . It is the old vice of wanting to control the "elected" by appointing them before the vote despite the repeated rejections by the Constitutional Court of Porcellum and Italicum . It will be objected that the Chamber will still be able to enter preferences, as the M5S has requested, but that will not happen. The opportunity for the majority parties to be able to appoint their future parliamentarians to better control them is too good. All happy and content, except the voters.
Less parliamentarians and even less appointed , the end of representative democracy. An oligarchic system governed exclusively by the party leaders and without any control by the voters, who will limit themselves in the polls to ratify the nominations decided at the table by the party secretaries.
Betrayed Charter – Yet the Constitution provides that parliamentarians are elected directly by citizens, and that the vote is a free choice and not a mere ratification. Thus the democratic vote is transformed into the vote on the Rousseau platform, which is limited to ratifying the decisions already taken by the leaders of the new pentastellato party. The reduction in the number of parliamentarians creates serious problems of representativeness especially in the Senate, with entire areas under-represented. The 5% threshold on a national basis, accompanied by the reduction in the number of senators from 315 to 200 and by an electoral law that provides for blocked lists, will make the Palazzo Madama Hall a place accessible only to the most voted lists – with sacrifice of minorities – and with senators appointed by party leaders. Other than "one is worth one"!
The real loser of this game, however, is the Democratic Party, which three times had voted against "the cut" and then accepted it in the name of a power pact that allowed the Dems to go to the government as defeated in the polls. The scalp of the Constitution in exchange for the government. After the referendum, when the electoral law arrives in Montecitorio, ItaliaViva and LeU – which in the commission did not approve it – will blow the table. Renzi does not want the 5% threshold and is more inclined to a majority system, while LeU would like to lower the threshold from 5 to 4 percent. At that point Zingaretti will find himself in the party in great difficulty with a constitutional reform that he did not want and without the electoral law he wanted . And it would be even worse if the No were passed, because the defeat of the M5s would also be its defeat, given that they are in government together and together now support the cut.
by Paolo Becchi and Giuseppe Palma in Libero yesterday, 12 September 2020.
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PS Those who wish to deepen the reasons for the “No” to the confirmatory referendum of 20 and 21 September, will be able to read the penultimate book by myself and by Paolo Becchi, “ A wrong reform. Twelve reasons to say NO to the cut of parliamentarians ", Editrice Gds (first edition February 2020; second edition September 2020):
https://www.amazon.it/Una-reforma-sbagliata-Dodici-parlamentari/dp/8867829920/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=una+reforma+sbagliata&qid=1599220139&sr=8-1
Giuseppe PALMA
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The article Before the parliamentarians cut you and then they screw you with blocked price lists (by P. Becchi and G. Palma) comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/prima-vi-tagliano-i-parlamentari-e-poi-vi-fregano-coi-listini-bloccati-di-p-becchi-e-g-palma/ on Sun, 13 Sep 2020 19:08:20 +0000.