The Taranto referendum showed that more than 80 percent of the city’s inhabitants advocate a complete stop of the ILVA missile system

According to the Italian news agency ANSA, the decision of the advisory referendum on the fate of the problematic metallurgical plant Ilva, which went on last Sunday in the city of Taranto, will not be mandatory. The fact is that to recognize the referendum, under the Italian laws, a quorum requires at least half of the voters of the territorial unit, and only 19.5 percent of local residents took part in the Sunday survey in Taranto.

However, the voters who voted to clearly understand that they are mostly at full or partial stopping of the detergent airinery air. 81 percent of those who took part in the vote advocated the immediate full stop of the entire plant and 92.6 percent of voters approved partial closure, including the stop of metallurgical production proper.

It is interesting that from the inhabitants of the most polluted Taranto Tamburi area where the highest mortality and a huge increase in cancer is observed, only 14.57 percent appeared on the voting sites.

Recall that ILVA is the main source of employment in an economically depressed region in southern Italy. According to the court order, partial disconnection and arrest of goods produced caused strikes, demonstrations, state intervention, as well as a legal conflict between judges of Taranto and the government.