Referendum on 12 June. You will be called upon to vote.

On June 12, 2022, Sunday, a Revocation Referendum (REFERENDUM ABROGATIVI EX ART. 75 DELLA COSTITUZIONE) will take place to decide on changes in laws referring to Italian Justice. According to Italian legislation, this referendum will only be valid if at least 50% plus one of the votes. Otherwise, the referendum will be considered void and the proposed changes will not be approved. Voting is not mandatory.

Update on June 14, 2022. See the referendum results here.

WHO VOTES AND HOW TO VOTE?

Every Italian citizen will be invited to vote. Italians abroad, duly registered with the AIRE, will receive the ballot by mail directly from the relevant Consulate. If you are an Italian citizen, and your address is not up to date, remember to make the necessary updates via Fast-It.

Alternatively, Italians abroad who are registered with the AIRE will be able to vote in Italy, in the Comune of electoral registration. To do so, it will be necessary to apply until April 17 directly to the consulate. Check with your consulate the procedure for receiving the request – some accept it via email, letter, and in person.

BUT AFTER ALL, WHAT IS THE REFERENDUM ABOUT?

As the name suggests, this referendum is about the repeal of laws and articles related to Italian Justice. There will be five questions on the following topics:

• Revocation or not of the Severino Law, on ineligibility, in which politicians convicted, in some cases in the first instance (that is, before the judgment of appeals and final res judicata), are automatically suspended from their position.

• Separation or not of the career of magistrates, in which, if approved, it proposes that a magistrate should, at the beginning of his career, choose whether he will act as a judge or as an accuser for his entire career.

• Limitation or not of Preventive Detention, in which criminal suspects can be preventively incarcerated before trials.

• Consent or not for lawyers who are members of the Judiciary Council to vote on the evaluation of the professionalism of judges.

• Elimination or not from the list of signatures for candidacy to be a member of the CSM, which obliges a potential candidate to present 25 to 50 signatures of members to have their candidacy confirmed.

This is a very technical referendum, difficult to understand even for Italians living in Italy. The description above is a simplified version, so if you want to vote, please find out the details of each question.