La Russa: “I will campaign for not voting in the referendum”

"I keep saying that I think about it, but I'm sure of one thing: I will campaign so that people stay at home." This was said in relation to the five referendums on June 8 and 9 on work and citizenship, by the President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa , speaking at the meeting "Spazio Cultura" , organized by FdI at the Niccolini theater in the presence of ministers and parliamentarians.

Speaking of reforms, the President of the Senate explained: "I find the choice of the centre-right to start with the premiership instead of starting with the direct election of the head of state reasonable, understandable but in light of the facts I cannot say that it was a wise choice".

"The center-right - he underlined - thought it could be a meeting ground with the opposition but the left did not accept to discuss in a calm manner: we discuss everything except direct democracy". For the second highest office of the State, "the reform is not stopped but it is true that it is not running. I think that the forms of direct democracy cannot and should not find ostracism because the most democratic countries in the world often have forms of direct democracy".

La Russa also addressed the relationship with the European Union: "Von der Leyen is not in a cage – he said -, she knows that if there is a measure that is right or that she considers to be right, it does not mean that it cannot pass anyway if the most left-wing part of her coalition does not want to vote for it".

The President of the Senate continued: "Without imagining when and how we might arrive at a Europe governed by the center-right, we have already made great strides with our declared project to change the balance of power in Europe. This is not flattery on my part, as I have known her since she was 15, but do we want to say that the main merit has a name and surname: that is, Giorgia Meloni ?"

The opposition reacts to La Russa's words. The PD deputy, Arturo Scotto , comments: "The President of the Senate, La Russa, has declared that he will campaign for people to stay home in the referendum. It has never happened that the second highest office of the State has made an appeal of this kind. On the day in which we mourn the death of Aldo Moro and Peppino Impastato, two martyrs of democracy. We are faced with an attitude that I do not hesitate to define as subversive".

Harsh comment from Avs representative Angelo Bonelli : "The President of the Senate who campaigns for abstention is a declaration of war on the Constitution and our democracy. He should resign and go back to his home to admire the busts of his leader. This is one more reason to go and vote 5 Yes in the referendum on June 8 and 9!".

For the secretary of +Europa, Riccardo Magi , promoter of the referendum on citizenship, La Russa's words are "unworthy": "We have understood that the president of the Senate La Russa does not even know what democracy is, given that together with the Meloni government he has transformed the Senate into the rubber stamp of Palazzo Chigi. But that the president of the Senate announces that he will actively campaign for people to stay at home to avoid going to vote in the referendum on June 8 and 9 is unworthy, from the lowest office of the State, not second".

The president of the 5 Star Movement, Giuseppe Conte , speaks of horror: "The president of the Senate Ignazio La Russa, the second highest office of the State, says: "I will campaign so that people stay home in the referendum". We are talking about the vote that would allow citizens to increase rights and protections in terms of safety at work, against illegitimate dismissals, against precarious employment. And as if that were not enough, La Russa always speaks of "possible errors" by Netanyahu. Are over 50 thousand Palestinians exterminated, children and mothers reduced to hunger and malnutrition with the blocking of aid, the attacks on hospitals and ambulances "possible errors"? It seems like a horror instead they are the statements of the leaders of our institutions".