The Network Against the Electoral Law: ‘Dozens of appeals are already ready’

The rejection suffered on 14 July in the Chamber is seen as “a clear sign of a serious rift within the majority”, but the Network Against the Electoral Law is already looking to the future, pursuing a two-pronged approach: a major nationwide mobilisation in the style of the referendum on justice, and dozens of legal challenges ready to be filed with the courts. Precisely to finalise the next steps, an online meeting is scheduled for tomorrow evening, 16 July, at which the various groups making up the newly formed ‘Network for a Free and Equal Vote’ – comprising over thirty organisations, associations, committees of constitutional experts, journalists, lawyers and citizens – will discuss the way forward.

“Appeals are already prepared to be lodged in dozens of courts should the law be definitively approved, with the aim of having the matter referred to the Constitutional Court,” explains Roberto Zaccaria, the Network’s coordinator. “A team of lawyers is working on this,” he says. “Time is running out. We must act quickly so that the Constitutional Court can intervene before the elections. It is unthinkable to go to the polls with an electoral law that overturns our Constitution.”

At the same time, the Network is preparing to launch a “campaign” across the country against the new electoral law which, it is emphasised, “upends our democratic balance”. “It will create a climate similar to that of the referendum,” Zaccaria assures us. The organisers are already planning three “major demonstrations”. “They will take place in Milan, Florence, Naples or Salerno after 15 September,” explains the Network’s coordinator. Alongside these demonstrations, associations and committees will take part “in the dozens of initiatives that will take place in various Italian cities”. For the Network, it is essential to “return to voting under an electoral law that complies with the Constitution, recreating the spirit of the referendum on justice”. The most serious aspect of the new law is the abnormal majority bonus, which in itself is a vulnus – a very serious wound to the equality of the vote. It poses a problem for democratic balance and affects the form of government: whoever wins takes it all. That is why we want a free and equal vote.” As for yesterday’s proceedings in the Chamber, they are seen as “a very clear sign that there are doubts and serious divisions within the majority itself”, but “time is running out” and the mobilisation is about to get into full swing.