Agylen

Probably nobody out of this little corner of the world knows that this weekend a referendum will be held on a handful of controversial matter: artificial fecundation, embryo handling, stem-cell research. The referendum is meant to abrogate some quite restrictive articles from a recent law that was passed by a right-wing, mostly catholic parliamentary majority. It’s not a mystery that the Catholic Church vehemently pushed for the adoption of a law like the one under discussion.

You might also not be aware of the fact that Italian law stipulates that a referendum is not considered valid unless more than half of the voters turn out at the polls. In other words, assuming there are 40 million people having the right to vote, but just 20 million or less do actually vote, it does not matter if 100% of them vote “yes”, they lose.

Since voter turnaround is typically quite low at referendums, most catholic organizations — including the Vatican, which is formally a foreign state and should just shut the fuck up — are not campaigning for a “no” vote but are instead encouraging voters to stay at home, hoping to invalidate the poll with such a tactic.

Well, since that is what the Constitution of the Republic says, it’s a perfectly legitimate tactic. No point arguing about that.

What I cannot stand, however, is hypocrisy. Like when the Italian Education Minister, Mrs. Letizia Moratti, declares that “the matter is too complex” and should be left to the Parliament. Oh come on, who are you trying to fool? Everybody knows it’s just an instrumental statement, i.e. a lie.

Or are we expected to believe that the Minister thinks she’s dumb to the point of not being able to discern what’s right and what’s wrong? What’s worse? Having a liar as Minister or a dumbass?

Besides, it’s the Parliament who voted the law in the first place and if the majority of citizens vote for its abrogation, what we are saying is that the matter is too complex to be left to a handful of politicians, who got it wrong the first time.