http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/13/berlusconi-nuclear-power
Berlusconi's nuclear power plans crushed
Referendums see huge votes against PM's plans - a second setback in under
two weeks
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- *John Hooper* <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/johnhooper> in Rome
- guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>, Monday 13 June 2011 19.51
BST
- Article
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[image: People celebrate following results in Italian referendums on water
and nuclear power in Rome]
People celebrate following results in Italian referendums on water and
nuclear power in Rome. Photograph: Roberto Monaldo/AP
The anti-nuclear movement won a crushing victory in Italy on Monday when
well over 90% of voters rejected Silvio
Berlusconi<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/silvio-berlusconi>'s
plans for a return to nuclear
power<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/nuclearpower>generation.
The result represented an overwhelming setback for the prime minister, who
had tried to thwart the outcome by discouraging Italians from taking part.
The referendum needed a turnout of at least 50% to be binding. Interior
ministry figures projections indicated that more than 57% of the electorate
had taken part. Greenpeace called it a historic result. Quorums were also
reached in three other referendums held simultaneously the first time in
16 years that a quorum had been achieved in any referendum in Italy.
Official projections showed more than 95% of voters rejecting water
privatisation and a law allowing Berlusconi and other ministers to cite
government business as a reason for delaying trials in which they were
defendants. The expected majority against nuclear power was 94%.
For the prime minister it represented a second, bitter setback in under two
weeks. His government, which yokes his Freedom People movement to the
regionalist and Islamophobic Northern League, first ran into serious trouble
on 30 May when his candidate for mayor of Milan lost in a local election
runoff. Milan is Berlusconi's home city and traditionally a weather-vane
accurately pointing to Italy's future political direction.
Acknowledging defeat even before the polls closed, Berlusconi said: "We
shall probably have to say goodbye to nuclear
[energy<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/energy>]."
He told a press conference in Rome that his government would now throw all
its energy into developing renewable sources. The outcome was a huge success
for the anti-nuclear movement in the world's first nationwide vote on the
issue since Japan's Fukushima disaster. The ballot was also the latest, and
most persuasive, evidence that a majority of Italians have turned against
their flamboyant prime minister.
The government, which appealed to the courts for the vote to be scrapped,
did all it could to keep turnout low. Berlusconi boycotted the vote and
Italian television, largely under his sway, almost ignored the approaching
ballots until the final days of a poorly funded, low-profile campaign.
Following the defeat in Milan, many rank-and-file Northern League supporters
have been urging their leader, Umberto Bossi, to cut himself free of
Berlusconi. The party leadership has so far remained wedded to the coalition
while pressing for a radical change in economic policy that would deliver
tax cuts to its lower middle-class electoral base. But as the results of the
two-day ballot became known on Monday, it was clear that even some of the
League's top officials were losing patience. Roberto Calderoli, a cabinet
minister, said: "In the local elections two weeks ago we took the first hit.
Now, with the referendum, has come the second. I would not like taking hits
to become a habit."
Italy abandoned its nuclear programme following a similar referendum in
1987. The government of the day opted to phase out all the country's
existing plants. The last one shut down in 1990. Berlusconi had planned to
generate a quarter of Italy's electricity with French-built nuclear plants.
Construction of the first was due to start between 2013 and 2015.
Vittorio Cogliati Dezza, president of the environmental organisation
Legambiente, said: "The era of nuclear [energy] is coming to an end today.
Definitively. A new season of development for the country is beginning."
Recalling Italy's first and most famous legislative referendum in 1974, when
voters were asked whether divorce should be outlawed, the leader of the
biggest opposition group, Pier Luigi Bersani of the Democratic party, said
the latest ballot had also been a referendum on divorce. But this time, said
Bersani, it was about "the divorce between the government and the country".
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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