Public Opinion Strikes Back: the Italian Referendum on Nuclear Energy

In its very beginning, nuclear power in Italy was well accepted by a bipartisan group of supporters among the political parties. Working on the historical archives of ENEL, the research reconstructs the shifting in the public opinion toward an antinuclear attitude, a shifting that brings the Italian state to reject all the nuclear plants on its territory. This happened through, the only case in the world, a popular referendum. The paper investigates on the historical context for such public opinion stance, moving from the Italian Communist Party congress, in which an anti-nuclear motion was presented and got almost 50%. Two weeks after the congress, the Chernobyl accident happened. It raised a deep impression and a wide worry for the behaviour of the “Chernobyl cloud”, and the public debate and polemic revived. Local and national demonstrations (Rome, 10 May) proliferated. The signature gathering for a national referendum began in July. In October, after a huge demonstration at Montalto di Castro, the Craxi government decided the stop to the yard, and called for a big Conference on Energy, which was held in February 1987 without any important result. The execution of the referendum, on 8-9 November 1987 stems from this background. On one side, the growing proposal of an Italian nuclear complex, and on the other side the bipartisan public opinion and political representatives opposing to the power plant. It is well known that in the referendum almost 80% of the votes were against nuclear. The legitimate question is: did this result univocally manifest the will of shutting down every nuclear power activity?