E-collecting brings new lease of life to Italian democracy 

A dog waits patiently as its owner votes in a set of referendums on citizenship and job protections at a polling station in Milan, June 8, 2025. Lapresse

Italy is experiencing a surge in grassroots democracy, with over 100 national initiatives and referendums launched in just four years. The revival is anchored on a state-run digital signature collection system and powered by the country’s electronic ID (e-ID) system. While broadening participation, the platforms are not without challenges.

Until recently, launching a popular initiative or a legislative referendum in Italy required not just a well-organised network of supporters but also deep pockets. “Every single signature had to be certified by a notary and officially validated by local authorities,” says Riccardo Fraccaro, a 44-year-old lawyer from the northern Italian town of Trento. 

Fraccaro’s frustration with the system eventually took him to the heart of government. In 2018, he became the world’s first – and so far, only – minister for direct democracy under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. During his 15-month tenure, he worked to dismantle the legal and bureaucratic hurdles standing in the way of citizen participation in Italy. 

Riccardo Fraccaro was the first – and so far only – national minister for direct democracy worldwide. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Italy, alongside Switzerland and Liechtenstein, ranks among the most frequent users of direct democratic instruments at the national level. Despite a host of legal and bureaucratic obstacles, Italians have used signature collection to launch 88 nationwide popular initiatives over the past 50 years. These hurdles, Fraccaro explains, were deliberately built into the constitution in the wake of fascist dictatorship and the Second World War. With radical forces such as the Communist Party threatening to destabilise Italy, quorum requirements for both referendums and constitutional amendments in parliament were to protect the young republic from potential takeovers. 

Will e-ID and e-collecting soon arrive in Switzerland?

Switzerland – where direct democratic rights are exercised even more often than in Italy – has long debated introducing a digital identity (e-ID) and enabling the electronic collection of signatures for people’s initiatives and referendums. The first attempt to authorise an e-ID was decisively rejected in a 2021 referendum, with 64.4% voting against. The result reflected concerns over data protection, and the potential commercial use of personal information. A revised proposal, which limits the issuing of e-IDs to government agencies – as in Italy – will go to a vote on September 28.   

The e-ID is not only regarded as a gateway to e-voting – long demanded by organisations representing the Swiss Abroad – but also as a prerequisite for the digital collection of signatures. After a recent scandal involving the systematic falsification of signature forms, support for ways to collect signatures digitally has built momentum. In June 2025, both houses of parliament passed motions aimed at enabling the digital collection of signatures following the rollout of the e-ID in 2026. 

In Italy, direct democracy is booming. Since 2021, more than 100 popular initiatives and legislative referendums have been launched. Topics have ranged from the legalisation of cannabis and direct presidential elections to abolishing hunting, legalising same-sex marriage, federal reform, the decriminalisation of prostitution, and peace-building initiatives in Ukraine and the Middle East.  

Lorenzo Cabulliese is a historian who heads the Gaetano Salvemini think-tank in Turin. He analyses the use of participatory and direct democratic processes at the local, regional, national and European level. “We are seeing more involvement from groups traditionally more distant from politics, such as young people and migrants,” he says. 

Lorenzo Cabulliese in the centre of Turin. Swissinfo/Bruno Kaufmann

According to Cabulliese, three key decisions have helped drive this surge in direct democratic activity in Italy. In 2019, the UN Human Rights Committee reprimanded Italy for its excessive bureaucratic barriers which block the exercise of citizens’ democratic rights. Then in 2021, the Italian parliament passed legislation to introduce e-collecting, and finally in 2024, the government in Rome launched a free, state-run platform for collecting signatures.  

“Now everyone who is entitled to vote has access to these fundamental rights of political participation,” says Cabulliese. He adds that another key element now ensures equal political rights for people with disabilities. Italy was among the first countries to introduce the digital identity system, or SPID (Sistema Pubblico di Identità Digitale). It was launched in 2015 and has been steadily improved since then.   

Digital tools have not only provided a boost to Italian democracy but also sparked a broader public debate about rights. “The underlying conditions of democracy have changed dramatically since our republican constitution was adopted,” emphasises Oskar Peterlini, a lecturer in constitutional law at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. “In the 1948 referendum on abolishing the monarchy, nearly 90% of those eligible to vote took part.”  

Subsequently, the so-called quorum provision was introduced. This required not only a simple majority in favour to validate a referendum, but also at least 50% participation of eligible voters. “Today, opponents of a proposal often use this rule to defeat it by calling for a boycott and refusing to participate,” Peterlini explains.  

In June, Italy’s first abrogative referendums, which allow voters to repeal laws, did not fare well. These new mechanisms were able to be used largely thanks to electronic signatures. The five proposals on labour market reform and an eased path to citizenship all achieved clear majorities in favour but failed to reach the 50% turnout threshold. This came after the right-wing nationalist prime minister Giorgia Meloni broke with tradition and did not call for a boycott of the ballot, as many of her predecessors had done. Instead, surrounded by a flurry of press photographers, she appeared at a polling station in Rome and deliberately refrained from casting her ballot. 

At the polling station, but not to vote: Giorgia Meloni in Rome, June 8, 2025. Ansa

In direct response to the prime minister’s provocation, rights advocates immediately launched an online popular initiative to abolish the participation quorum. The initiative was submitted the very next day with far more than the 50,000 signatures required. Whether the initiative will succeed remains to be seen. The parliament in Rome must now discuss the proposal, although – according to Lorenzo Cabulliese – a substantive debate is unlikely. Unlike an abrogative referendum, when a popular initiative is submitted to parliament, under current procedural rules, it can be passed to a committee – and ultimately ignored.  

A proposed compromise: ‘Half the quorum, double the signatures’ 

Oskar Peterlini, who himself served in the Italian Senate as part of the conservative South Tyrolean People’s Party, suggests a potential compromise: halve the quorum of participation and double the number of signatures required. This means a referendum would need a minimum voter turnout of 25% (instead of 50%), and legislative referendums would require one million signatures (instead of half a million). With over 50 million eligible voters in Italy, this would amount to just under 2%, which is the same proportion of voters that is required in Switzerland to validate a popular initiative for a constitutional amendment.  

Edited by Mark Livingston, adapted from German by David Kelso Kaufher/ds