Referendum in final rush between calls to vote or abstain, here's how the parties are divided

Final rush ahead of the 8 and 9 June vote on the referendums on labour and citizenship. Committees and parties supporting the yes vote are busy with the aim of intercepting the undecided, to try to overcome the prohibitive quorum threshold. Several events were organised in the last week. 'We must work to convince everyone to exercise their right and go out and vote,' is the call from Dem secretary Elly Schlein. The centre-right majority is aligned to desert the ballot box and invites (almost all of them) their voters to abstain as a political choice. Fratelli d'Italia was the first government party to openly line up for non-voting, but Forza Italia and the League have also closely expressed their aim to make the referendum fail.

On 3 June in Bari, the CGIL leader Maurizio Landini, Schlein, Nicola Fratoianni of Avs and the Pentastellata deputy Chiara Appendino will meet on stage for an event entitled 'Work, security, citizenship' that will be opened by the president of Puglia, Michele Emiliano. On the occasion of 2 June, on the other hand, the citizenship committee has organised a celebration on the symbolic date on which Italians chose for the Republic through a popular referendum. 'With the referendum of 2 June 1946,' recalled Head of State Sergio Mattarella, 'the free vote of the Italian people for the Republic crowned the fight for Liberation from Nazi-Fascism'. His words, commented Angelo Bonelli of Avs 'remind us with strength and sobriety of the profound value of democratic participation and voting'. At the Citizenship Party on 2 June at Testaccio, which will also be attended by artists and exponents of the world of culture, 'we have invited all the political leaders who support the yes vote in the citizenship referendum,' underlines +Europa secretary Riccardo Magi, 'because, one week before the vote, we need the mobilisation of all and everyone with the same unitary spirit that guided the front of the Republic on 2 June 1946: in front of battles for the conquest of rights we must march united. At the initiative, the presence of the Dem secretary and delegations of other forces that have lined up for the yes vote is not excluded. Iv, for example, is expected to participate with Senate group leader Raffaella Paita and there will be exponents of Avs. Squares, gazebos and social appeals are multiplying. "Enough scrolling, help us!" say from the smartphone screen Bonelli and Fratoianni asking for a hand with the claim 'Vote five yes, your revolution starts this way'.

In the off the record of the opposition parties, if the quorum is not reached, a participation threshold of over 12 million is quoted as positive, thus surpassing the number of centre-right voters in the 2022 politics. But if the referendum passes, underlines Dem Andrea Orlando, 'there will be a push in the direction of labour guarantees' on the contrary 'the risk is that someone will take advantage of it to further weaken workers' guarantees'.

As said, all sided for abstention is the majority. And a video of the secretary of the Young League arouses controversy, accusing Arturo Scotto (PD) of tearing up ballot papers. An exception in the centre-right is Noi Moderati, which has long since made it known that it will vote five no. "Five no to the referendum,' reiterates leader Maurizio Lupi, 'not to go back 20 years, because work is given by companies and the worker is not an enemy to be exploited but a resource. And for citizenship ten years are necessary to learn our language, to recognise our values, to integrate into society'.