Italians Vote to Abandon Nuclear Energy
Autor: Alberto Ricardo Präss | Publicado: 2011-06-14T09:51:00-07:00

ROME—Italians voted to abandon nuclear power for the foreseeable future, turning out in droves to cast ballots in a packet of referenda whose outcome is a sign of growing popular discontent toward Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government.

Mr. Berlusconi's administration had in past weeks urged people not to vote in the four referenda, which were organized by center-left opposition parties and which asked voters whether they wanted to overturn government laws on reviving nuclear energy, privatizing Italy's water supply and giving top government officials partial immunity from prosecution.

Instead, 57% of Italians went to the polls—a number well above the 50% of the voting population needed to make a referendum valid, a threshold last reached in 1995. More than 95% of those who cast their ballots voted "yes" in each referendum, overturning the four laws in question.

"This was a vote against nuclear energy. But by urging people not to go to the polls, Berlusconi turned this into a vote against himself," said Giovanni Sartori, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Florence.

Mr. Berlusconi had made restarting nuclear energy in Italy one of his government's priorities. The immunity law also had been one of the government's key planks. The law allows the prime minister and other top officials not to show up in court for criminal trials, if busy governing schedules are cited. Critics, however, have long characterized the law as a tailor-made measure aimed at shielding Mr. Berlusconi from the four criminal trials he is currently facing.

On Monday, the prime minister acknowledged the defeat.

"On each theme, Italians have made their position clear. The government and Parliament will now have to take into account this result," Mr. Berlusconi's office said in a statement.

Monday's outcome is notable not just for the lopsided vote but also because it comes just weeks after Mr. Berlusconi's conservative coalition was badly defeated in local elections. Though the premier still has the majority in Parliament he needs to govern, his popularity has been falling in recent months.

Italy's center-left opposition parties, which had widely campaigned for people to vote, were jubilant. Opposition leader Pierluigi Bersani hailed the result as a crucial sign of the need for political change and called for Mr. Berlusconi's government to resign.

"This referendum marks a divorce between the Italians and the government. At this point, the government has to leave and lead to new elections," Mr. Bersani told a news conference.

Conservative government officials tried to play down the political meaning of the vote. "The fact that the referenda reached the quorum doesn't change anything for the government," said Ignazio La Russa, Italy's Defense Minister and a strong Berlusconi supporter.

Italy's chronically feeble economy, however, is weighing heavily on young people in particular, and many here are fed up with the premier's legal woes, including most recently his trial on charges of paying for sex with an underage woman and abusing his power to cover it up—charges the premier denies.

The Northern League, Mr. Berlusconi's party's most important ally in Parliament, also is getting fed up. "Two weeks ago, we got a first slap in the face in local elections. Now the referendum has dealt us a second slap in the face," said Roberto Calderoli, Italy's minister for legislative simplification and a key Northern League official.

Italy abandoned nuclear energy in 1987—shortly after the Chernobyl nuclear accident—by voting against it in a referendum similar to Monday's. In the current vote, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis in Japan drew people to the polls. As in other European countries, Italy earlier this year imposed a moratorium on its nuclear plans, but Mr. Berlusconi's government was hoping to resurrect them longer term by building several plants across the country. Early on Monday, as the results were coming in, Mr. Berlusconi said that without the possibility of nuclear plants, Italy would have to "strongly commit" to renewable energy.

Many others pushed for a nuclear revival in the country. "Italy will spend a lot of money for energy needs" without nuclear energy, said Chicco Testa, head of Italy's Nuclear Forum and former chairman of Italian utility Enel SpA. Mr. Testa was one of the main backers of the 1987 referendum against nuclear power, but has since changed his stance: "There is plenty of gas out there and coal, but I don't know what the prices will be in 10 years' time as they are tied to oil. Based on past experience, I see higher oil prices."

The two water-related referenda asked Italians to vote on whether to overturn the government's plans to privatize water utilities. The government has argued that handing over water management to private entities would make it more efficient. Critics argued successfully that it would lead to higher prices.

Write to Giada Zampano at giada.zampano@dowjones.com&nbsp;
Source:WSJ