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Looking to Italy for
poll inspiration
By Huang Kuo-chang 黃國昌
The nuclear incident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant in Japan that began
in March is forcing the world to take another look at the potentially
irreversible disasters that this supposedly clean and cheap energy source could
cause.
Countries are giving serious consideration to nuclear power’s position in the
triangular relationship between energy, environmental protection and economic
development. Switzerland and Germany have released a timetable for scrapping
nuclear power and in the middle of this month, Italy held a referendum to decide
the future of nuclear power in their country.
After the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986, Italy rejected
nuclear power in a referendum, but after Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi took office, he actively pushed for the construction of nuclear power
plants.
The Italian government had planned the referendum to obtain the public’s
authorization to resume a nuclear power program. However, following the
unexpected disaster in Japan, public opinion made a U-turn. Sensing the change
in the wind, the Italian government said it would delay its nuclear power policy
by a year and cancel the referendum.
However, the opposition and environmental groups filed a lawsuit demanding that
the referendum be held and on June 1, the court ruled that it should be held as
scheduled. The result of the referendum was that they won by a landslide, as 94
percent of voters refused to embrace nuclear power again. The voter turnout rate
was 57 percent, the first time in 16 years that voter turnout in a referendum
exceeded 50 percent. The result forced Berlusconi to say that perhaps Italy must
say goodbye to the possibility of nuclear power and focus on developing
renewable energy.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s legislature ignored protests by environmental groups and
passed a budget of more than NT$14 billion (US$486 million) for the Fourth
Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) on June
13. The outcome of the Italian referendum should be an inspiration for Taiwan.
The flawed design of the Referendum Act (公投法) is probably the reason why these
environmental protection groups are reluctant to initiate a referendum. Even so,
I still believe that the realization of direct democracy as protected by the
Constitution is the most effective way to force the government — which continues
to ignore public opinion — to make a concession.
In addition, a friendly and complete referendum design is crucial to the smooth
and successful implementation of the referendum.
Hopefully, all presidential candidates in next year’s presidential election will
announce their stance on amending the Referendum Act and make a solemn pledge to
return power to the public.
Huang Kuo-chang is an associate research fellow at Academia Sinica’s
Institutum Iurisprudentiae.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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