Clash over referendum, Meloni defends abstention and attacks the left: "It's a right"

In the heated climate that accompanies the upcoming referendum , the issue of abstention returns to the center of political debate. In this scenario, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has decided to intervene firmly, defending the right to choose not to vote as a legitimate expression of citizenship. During the second edition of “ Il giorno de La Verità”, Meloni launched a clear and provocative message.

Clash over referendum, Meloni defends abstention: "It's a right"

During the second edition of “Il giorno de La Verità”, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni addressed the issue of the referendum vote , highlighting a two-fold message: on the one hand, she underlined that going to the polls represents a gesture of respect towards the institutions :

“I am going to the polls because I am Prime Minister and it is right to give a sign of respect towards the ballot boxes and the referendum institution”.

On the other hand, he acknowledged that abstention can also be considered a legitimate choice:

“When you don't agree with referendums, there is also the option of abstention.”

These statements have inevitably rekindled the debate between political forces on the meaning of the quorum and the value of democratic participation. However, Meloni recalled that, historically, all the parties of the Republic have promoted abstention when they did not agree with referendums, underlining that this right must apply to everyone, and not only to those who belong to the left.

Regarding the referendum project that proposes to reduce the time to obtain Italian citizenship to five years, the prime minister said she was strongly against it, arguing that the current law is good and very open. However, she added that the government is working to simplify and speed up bureaucratic procedures for those who already have the right to citizenship.

Regarding rumors of alleged internal friction within the executive , Meloni denied any tension, declaring that no one lectures anyone and expressing her satisfaction with the work done by ministers, including Salvini and Tajani. She then underlined the compactness of the majority and the solidity of the government, reiterating the commitment to bring the legislature to its natural conclusion, defining this as the most important challenge.

Clash over referendum, Meloni cites the left's 2003 manifesto

During the meeting, Giorgia Meloni showed an old poster of the Democrats of the Left, featuring the symbol of the Oak and the red writing “NOT”, used in June 2003 to invite voters not to go to the polls during a referendum.

That leaflet, referring to the proposal of Fausto Bertinotti, then leader of Rifondazione Comunista, aimed to extend the ban on layoffs to small businesses, and argued that not voting in a referendum deemed useless and wrong was a right for everyone, workers and non-workers alike.

Meloni referred to this very concept, underlining that in Italy not voting in a referendum represents a personal and collective right .

“As a serious party teaches us, in Italy not voting in the referendum is my right, it is everyone’s right,” the prime minister attacks.

The prime minister then criticized the left, accusing it of wanting to abolish through these referendums laws that it itself had helped to create , and stressed that many of the promoters had governed for the last ten years.

“ They sing and play it themselves , as they say in Rome. Instead of spending 400 million euros they could have acted on the issues of the referendums in Parliament. It is a question entirely internal to the left”, he concluded.