Referendum, Meloni's plan to convince the undecided

There are 32 days to go until the referendum on the constitutional reform of justice and the agitation between Via della Scrofa and Palazzo Chigi is mounting. The official line of the premier Giorgia Meloni remains that of not politicising the appointment, but the polls are being compiled, and new ones commissioned, to understand how to strengthen the campaign for a Yes vote. And there is already a date circled in red on the calendar for the Prime Minister's call to vote: 12 March.

But let us go in order. In order to survey 25 thousand Italians by the end of March, the Prime Minister's Office, through the Publishing Department, has signed a contract with Carlo Buttaroni's Tecnè company worth 120 thousand euro net plus VAT: 146,400 euro in all. In return, three researches will be conducted respectively on a sample of 10 thousand, 10 thousand and 5 thousand adults divided by geographical area (North-West without Valle D'Aosta), North-East, Centre, South and Islands.

The latest surveys are not comforting for the government. According to the latest poll carried out by Swg for TgLa7, turnout is expected to be in a range between 46% and 50%, and the supporters of the Yes and No camps have come practically closer, both travelling around 38%.

It is clear to everyone in the government and the majority that convincing the undecided will be crucial. So will choosing to focus more on the 'emotional' aspects of the malfunctioning of justice than on the technical aspects of the reform. This is also why Meloni, for now, is 'propping up' the territory with continuous attacks on magistrates who make mistakes. Most recently yesterday, when in a video message she sank the blow against 'the politicised part of the judiciary' that hampers, in her opinion, 'every action aimed at combating mass illegal immigration'.

This is certainly not a new battle. For months the Prime Minister, together with a now large group of European allies, has been calling for the revision of international and European human rights conventions in order to curb the discretionary interpretations of judges which, according to the government, thwarts the hard punch against irregular migrants. Now the fight finds new life: in the latest case, the Rome court ruling that condemned the Viminale to compensate an Algerian man EUR 700 for being illegally transferred to Albania. A man, said Meloni, "with 23 convictions behind him", recipient of an expulsion order and detained for a month in the Cpr in Gjader.