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Articles

The Italian foreign constituency and its MPs

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Pages 162-184 | Received 04 Oct 2016, Accepted 21 Dec 2016, Published online: 19 Jun 2017
 

ABSTRACT

More than ten years after the Tremaglia law was introduced, the quality of the representation provided by MPs elected for the foreign constituency is often the subject of caricature, despite the MPs' many activities. The purpose of this article is to explore the kind of representation enjoyed by Italians resident abroad by looking, in particular, at the social and other characteristics of the members of Parliament representing the overseas constituency. The study, based on interviews and an analysis of legislative proposals, focuses on selection mechanisms and candidates' strategies with regard to political issues, the tools of communication they deploy and their links with their constituencies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Expatriate voting refers not to expatriates' right to vote by returning to the national territory, but to the possibility of casting a vote from abroad (see Lafleur Citation2015; Nohlen and Grotz Citation2000).

2 In contrast with ‘active’ registration, automatic registration does not require any specific declaration on the part of the voter. In Italy, citizens are registered by the authorities if their names appear in both the Register of Italians Resident Abroad (Anagrafe Italiani Residenti all'Estero, AIRE), maintained by the Ministry of the Interior, and the Consulate register, maintained by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (see Mascitelli and Battiston Citation2008).

3 The reform involved an amendment to article 48 of the Constitution, with the institution of the ‘Circoscrizione Estero’. The four areas, or colleges, of the ‘Circoscrizione Estero’ are ‘Europe’ (including the Russian Federation and Turkey), ‘South America’, ‘Central and North America’ and ‘Africa-Asia-Oceania-Antarctica’. In the parliamentary debates, deputies considered several proposals including the possibility of a single expatriate college and wider parliamentary representation. Proportional representation is used for the expatriates' constituency: every college has a minimum of one Chamber seat and one Senate seat, with the remainder being assigned in accordance with the number of expatriate voters.

4 Legge 27 dicembre 2001, n. 459 ‘Norme per l'esercizio del diritto di voto dei cittadini Italiani residenti all'estero’. This law was introduced in conjunction with amendments to three articles of the Constitution: see Legge 17 gennaio 2000, n. 1: ‘Modifica all'articolo 48 della Costituzione concernente l'istituzione della circoscrizione Estero per l'esercizio del diritto di voto dei cittadini Italiani residenti all'estero’ (G.U. n. 15 del 20 gennaio 2000); Legge 23 gennaio 2001, n. 1: ‘Modifiche agli articoli 56 e 57 della Costituzione concernenti il numero dei deputati e senatori in rappresentanza degli Italiani all'estero’ (G.U. n. 19 del 24 gennaio 2001).

5 Legge n. 40 del 7 febbraio 1979, ‘Modifiche alle norme sull'elettorato attivo concernenti la iscrizione e la reiscrizione nelle liste elettorali dei cittadini Italiani residenti all'estero’. On the relation between this law and turnout see Cuturi, Sampugnaro, and Tomaselli (Citation2000).

6 Comites, Comitati degli Italiani all'Estero (1985) and CGIE, Consiglio Generale degli Italiani all'Estero (1989).

7 Article 56 of the Constitution.

8 A majority of the expatriates making up the foreign constituency voted in favour of the constitutional reform in the referendum of June 2006.

9 Before adoption of the Tremaglia Law, Italians registered as voters in the AIRE had materially to collect an electoral certificate. Registration was required to participate in elections and votes had to be cast in polling stations located in the voter's last Italian constituency of residence.

10 Legge 5 febbraio 1992, n.91. According to the Fondazione Migrantes (Citation2014), AIRE included the names of 4,482,115 individuals up to January 2014. Of these, 2,379,977 were expatriates and 1,747,409 had been born in Italy. The numbers had been growing. 52% originated from southern Italy and the majority were resident in Argentina, Germany and Switzerland.

11 After the law was approved, Sartori clarified, in other essays (Citation2004) and ad hoc interviews, his preferred model for non-resident Italians, reaffirming many of the problems he had emphasised. Alongside several doubts he inclined towards postal voting in domestic constituencies. See: ‘Mi hanno impedito di votare’, INFORM N. 123, 13, June 2005; ‘Referendum, il voto degli Italiani all'estero per Sartori è “un'enorme assurdità”’, Il Fatto Quotidiano, 8 June 2011.

12 The purpose of the study is not to compare the MPs representing expatriates with other Italian MPs, even though some comparative data are occasionally referred to. The data are derived from a series of self-completion questionnaires delivered through the platform ‘Google-drive’, and from a number of in-depth interviews, arranged thanks to the collaboration of Stefano Rapisarda, a student enrolled on the degree programme in International Relations at the University of Catania. Those interviewed were the 12 deputies and 6 senators elected at the 2013 General Election to represent the foreign constituency. We also interviewed 34 non-elected candidates, selected from the electoral lists for the foreign constituency. The questionnaire was designed to tap the socio-demographic characteristics of the candidates, and to throw light on the methods by which they had been recruited, their political engagement and their communication with the electorate. Given the size of the universe, we considered only absolute values and decided not to use multivariate techniques for profiling purposes.

13 The PD came first only if we add the votes it obtained nationally to those it won in the foreign constituency (8,646,034 + 287,975). Excluding the expatriate vote (and those cast in the Valle D'Aosta constituency) the largest party is the Five-star Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle, M5S) with 8,691,406 votes.

14 The importance of associations as a field of recruitment in general elections is noted by Verzichelli (Citation2010).

15 The case of Renato Turano – leader of a number of migrants' and professional associations – is well known: For a long time he was courted simultaneously by Tremaglia (of the centre right) and by the Unione (on the centre left) with a view to inclusion in their electoral lists. He chose to side with the Unione, joining the Margherita a few months before the 2006 election.

16 The PD in particular, exemplifies such an approach in that established party careers are discernible in many of its elected representatives (such as the university professor, Francesco Giacobbe, who was a local party leader and an activist in the Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) before before he emigrated, or Laura Garavini).

17 PD Mondo (www.pdmondo.it) is a network of overseas party branches numbering 45 in Europe, 11 in North and Central America, 22 in South America and 5 in Africa, Oceania, Asia and Antarctica. It produces an online monthly magazine, PD, Cittadini del Mondo.

18 For example, the PD's campaign document, ‘Italia Giusta’, rfefers to the fact that voting takes place by post. The programme is available at http://www.partitodemocratico.it/doc/249707/il-programma-del-pd-per-gli-Italiani-nel-mondo.

19 Lafleur (Citation2015) has drawn attention to the emergence of ‘transnational cooperation’ based on informal agreements between sister parties located in different countries. Because they share the same outlooks and have similar electorates, they find it useful to collaborate in their attempts at mobilising voters. For example, the ‘Democratic Party of Italy (PD) has invited Italians residing in Germany to vote for the German Social Democratic Party in the local election. In return, that same German Party contributed to the electoral campaign of PD among Italians living in Germany during the last Italian Parliamentary elections’ (Lafleur Citation2015, 856).

20 This is probably to be explained by the existence of radio stations specifically targeted at expatriate Italian communities.

21 It is no coincidence that of the members of Parliament for the Europe electoral college, two come from Germany and two from Switzerland and only one from England.

22 A proposal concerning animal welfare was mentioned by Tacconi (formerly of the M5S), and another on the ‘harmonisation of anti-mafia legislation in Europe’ was mentioned by Laura Garavini (PD).

23 See Openpolis (Citation2014). The data refer to the first year of the legislature and were collected on 26 March 2015.

24 An obvious limitation of this index is that it does not take into account other relevant parliamentary activities (such as membership of boards, groups, committees, councils and colleges and being an officer of the Chamber or Senate).

25 One concerned the acquisition of surnames by children, another ‘The Establishment of a commission of inquiry into the Mafia and other criminal organisations, domestic and foreign.’ See: http://www.huffingtonpost.it/laura-garavini/dalla-camera-al-senato-presto-cognome-della-mamma-ai-figli_b_5886490.html. Paradoxically, some measures favouring the interests of Italian emigrants have been sponsored by members of Parliament other than those representing expatriates. A recent example is that of Senators Esposito and Mirabelli (PD) who, thanks to an amendment they sponsored, achieved a reduction in the taxes payable by emigrants. See: www.fondazioneifel.it/imu/rassegna-stampa/item/1842-canoni-concordati-il-senato-prova-un-nuovo-taglio-imu-il-sole-24-ore.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rossana Sampugnaro

Rossana Sampugnaro, Associate Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Catania. Her research interests are in political communication, parties and Italian politics. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Italian Political Sociology Association (AIS).

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