A double referendum was held in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

on 11 June 1978.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An ex ...

& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1048 Voters were asked whether they approved of the repealing of laws on political party financing and public order.Nohlen & Stöver, p1056 Both proposals were rejected.

Police powers abrogative referendum

The ''Reale Law'' was approved by the Parliament in 1975 and defined the powers and engagement of the Italian police during riots or simple street protests. The referendum was called by the Radical Party and supported by two extreme opposition parties, the

Italian Social Movement The Italian Social Movement (, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national conservatism. In 1972, the Itali ...

on the right side, and

Proletarian Democracy Proletarian Democracy (, DP) was a far-left political party in Italy. History 1970s DP was founded in 1975 as a joint electoral front of the Proletarian Unity Party (PdUP), Workers Vanguard (AO) and the "Workers Movement for Socialism" (MLS), ...

on the left, together with the

Italian Liberal Party The Italian Liberal Party (, PLI) was a liberal political party in Italy. The PLI, which was heir to the liberal currents of both the Historical Right and the Historical Left, was a minor party after World War II, but also a frequent junio ...

, while all other parties, including the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

, supported retaining the law.

Results

The referendum was rejected by the Italian electors, following the positions of all the parties of the so-called Constitutional Arch.

Party funding abrogative referendum

The other question concerned the party funding ''Piccoli Law'' was the subject of one question. The new law was passed by the Parliament in 1974, establishing public funding of the parliamentary parties in an attempt to stop the funding of parties big industrial groups and interests. The referendum was called by the Radical Party and was supported by

and the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Social democracy, social democratic and Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parti ...

, whilst the remainder of the political spectrum were against its abolishment.

Results

The referendum was rejected by the Italian electors, but the percentage was considerably smaller than the expected result considering the parliamentary positions.

References

{{Italian elections Referendums in Italy

1978 elections in Italy June 1978 in Europe