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Posted by geox 6 hours ago

Italian parliament votes for return to nuclear energy(apnews.com)
455 points | 289 commentspage 3
epolanski 5 hours ago|
> after voters *twice* rejected it in national referendums

Democracy is just lovely.

Have your citizens answer to a straightforward question on a topic twice, have them reject it, both times.

And the government will still go its way.

I'm not against nuclear per se, I'm just baffled at the "democratic" process.

layer8 4 hours ago||
The referendums were in 1987 and 2011, respectively. Asking once every 15+ years seems fine, the population changes and opinions change.

It’s much less frequent than the usual democratic election cycle, where people are also allowed to reevaluate their positions.

epolanski 4 hours ago||
> Asking once every 15+ years seems fine, the population changes and opinions change.

But nobody asked, there hasn't been a third referendum.

jltsiren 3 hours ago||
It doesn't work that way in Italy. A popular referendum can only abolish an existing law, partially or fully. The general public cannot vote to adopt new legislation.
icantevenhold 4 hours ago|||
The government was elected by the people - if they disagree with this decision it will have consequences in the next election.

I think the public opinion and sentiment has changed quite significantly since 2011 when the last referendum was held.

The current Italian government is massively populist so they wouldn’t do this if they thought people would disagree.

I don’t see any problem with the democratic process here - sure it’s a flawed system but I believe it’s still the best we came up with so far

epolanski 4 hours ago||
I am not debating the benefits of democracy, rather how there's no democracy at all if a referendum is not legally binding and a government can disregard the result.
eru 4 hours ago||
Shouldn't people be allowed to change their minds?

A party can lose three election, and if they win the fourth, they still get into power.

testing22321 3 hours ago||
Sweet. Minimum 20 years and $20Billion before any electricity is produced.

I wonder how much solar, wind and batteries you could get for that, and how quickly it would be deployed

thisisauserid 4 hours ago||
So their plan to burn oil and keep the AC mandated no cooler than 24°C in their homes didn't work out? Huh.
ImJamal 2 hours ago||
I just don't get people saying how terrible climate change is going to be for the world and then refuses to support nuclear.

If climate change is such a critical problem, then let's try everything to get this solved even if it costs more to do it. If you are only willing to do some solutions because it is cheaper then I don't believe you when you say it is important to solve.

And frankly, we don't know the full impact of climate change, so having as many alternatives as possible just makes sense. Hydro can be impacted by droughts which will be more common. Solar may be impacted if there are increased storms. Wind may be impacted due to stilling (slowing of wind due to an increase in co2).

Why not throw nuclear into the mix to ensure we do not run out of power?

mjmas 1 hour ago||
Because having a solution would put the climate change organisations out of a job.
exabrial 2 hours ago||
HN is full of solar salesman.
egorfine 5 hours ago||
Nature is healing.
ksudb 4 hours ago||
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stefantalpalaru 3 hours ago||
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iamheretoo 5 hours ago||
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b38484848 5 hours ago||
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JV00 5 hours ago||
Maybe not them, but their children could do it. Italy's capability to assimilate is underrated.
OKRainbowKid 5 hours ago||
Agreed on your second point, but why couldn't you make it without the blatant racism?
redsocksfan45 5 hours ago|||
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b38484848 5 hours ago|||
oh, Im italian
ButlerianJihad 4 hours ago|
Presidente Giorgia Meloni is awesome and it’s amazing to see a woman empowered by the democratic process and serving the will of the Italian people

https://youtu.be/sNhPplje7xM?is=h5VtnMe9wva-VKGM