In glorious sunshine, in magnificent piazzas at the centres of cities the length and breadth of Italy, in their hundreds and hundreds of thousands, the people signed up to tell their 'democratic' representatives what is and is not acceptable in the administration of the country, from the Senate to the lowliest village comune.
Three short clear demands: no convicted criminals in Parliament; no re- election after serving two terms ; direct mass election of candidates for Parliament instead of lists chosen by party leaderships.
In Florence's piazza della Repubblica we were signing at the rate of 1000 an hour, with police and fire officers in uniform signing along with the rest; in Naples so great was the crowd of signatories in the two main squares, (so appropriately named piazza del Plebiscito) that thousands of fresh forms had to be run off; in Bologna's piazza Maggiore and the interconnected piazza del Nettuno an immense crowd cheered Beppe Grillo, one of the most famous of actors and stand-up comics whose blog is the best in Italy, as he presented 'a proposal for a people's law' and declared that the signatures were already enough.
Enough is what everybody has had: enough of being ignored, enough of having parties that represent none of the aspirations of the voters; enough of criminals and mafiosi and the underbelly of grey governance; enough of paying and not receiving as incredible sums are siphoned off into party coffers and placemen jobs; enough of being told and expected to do as.
One small group of fools raised a red flag in the Bologna meeting. Grillo demanded its immediate lowering. No more of that either.
Vaffanculo.
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2 comments:
Is this a petition, a referendum, what? Can we have something like that in Blighty?
The Constitution provides for the initiation of legislation by the people and for the initiation of referendums by the people.
Article 71 [Initiative]
'....
(2) The people may introduce public initiatives consisting of a bill drafted in articles and supported by at least 50,000 voters.'
Article 75 [Referendum]
(1) When requested by 500,000 voters or by five regional councils, a popular referendum decides on total or partial repeal of a law or other acts with legal force.'
They've got the signatures for the initiation of their law in less than half a day, and had they wanted signatures for the abrogation of extant laws, the numbers would have supported that too. It is quite extraordinary.
No, we cannot have either of these things as we have destroyed the old ways and agreements and the consent of the governed and replaced it with power being held absolutely by the current regime who cannot be held to any account except possibly a vote at a time of their own choosing.
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