The project of constitutional reform of the Italian government was, says GUE/NGL MEP Barbara Spinelli, in line with a general trend characterising the European Union: decreasing the political weight of Parliaments, enhancing the powers of executives, increasingly eroding popular sovereignty to whom is delegated the last say – through the vote – on the election of Chambers and governments:

“Matteo Renzi’s constitutional reform did not abolish the Senate, as it claimed. Instead it was preserved – with considerable powers – however not elected by citizens but nominated by the élites of regional Councils, the most corrupted and inefficient organs in Italy.”

“The powers that be within the States, the Union and the markets are more and more terrified by the peoples who participate and vote, and are irresponsibly reviving 19th-century campaigns – cultural, social and political – against the universal suffrage. 

“The philosopher Jürgen Habermas is convinced that the European Union is nowadays based on this oligarchic design: he calls it “the post-democratic federalism of executives”.

“The Italians responded massively, during the referendum on Sunday 4 December, and with an unprecedented majority scrapped this project,” said the Italian MEP.