Italy: Referendum request on Article 18 rejected - HSBC

Fabio Balboni, European Economist at HSBC, notes that the Italian Constitutional Court has rejected yesterday the request for referendum on the reintroduction of Article 18, a law which used to make it impossible for firms to sack their employers.

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“Instead, it approved the other two referenda put forward by the labour union, including one on the vouchers system for part-time working, which have to take place between 15 April and 15 June. But the rejection of the most important, both from an economic and political perspective, of the referenda, reduces the need for the ruling party PD to bring forward the elections to the spring to avoid such referendum. But with limited political legitimacy for the current care-taker government, we still see early elections before autumn this year, once the new electoral law(s) have been approved, and before difficult negotiations with Brussels on the 2018 budget kick-off.”