Institutions must work to get people
voting again, President Sergio Mattarella said after turnout was
sharply down in regional elections in Emilia-Romagna and Umbria
on Sunday and Monday.
They are the latest in a string of local and national polls at
which turnout has dropped.
"Freedom and pluralism as vectors of development of the new
Italy. An Italy in which participation in elections - after the
era of podestà appointed by the regime - made citizens effective
protagonists. For this reason too, we must work, culturally and
politically, to get voter turnout to rise again," Mattarella
told the assembly of Italian municipalities (ANCI) in Turin.
The president added:
"The role of the Municipalities is crucial, as is their function
of representing the expectations of their respective
communities, participating in the choices that involve the fate
of their respective populations. The Municipalities are the most
emblematic expression of Italian diversity, a symbol of the
freedom and unity of our country. The Constituents (who drafted
the Italian Constitution, ed.) wanted to place the autonomy of
the Municipalities as the linchpin of social and institutional
pluralism".
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