After twenty-five years of clashes and controversies that lasted up to the courtrooms in Piedmont, the referendum on hunting will take place.
It was a 25 year long battle, fought between court papers. Eventually, Piedmont will hold a referendum on hunting. This was established by the TAR, which ordered the Region to set the date within 15 days of notification of the sentence; in any case, it should be a Sunday between April 15 and June 15.
For the organizing committee, which had collected 60 signatures in 1987, "the time of deceptions is over". The regional councilor for Agriculture Sacchetti (Lega), who had tried to prevent the referendum, has assured that the Piedmont Region will set the date. Otherwise the prefect of Turin will provide.
In the meantime, the Constitutional Court has established, with regard to the hunting calendars, that they are illegitimate those established by the Regions with a law rather than with an administrative act (which can be challenged), and which must be issued year by year, "no later than June 15".
Pending the referendum, the process continues for the approval of a new regional law on hunting that is even more permissive than the current one. For Sacchetti, the sentence "does not change the process of the new law, on the contrary it should clear its path". According to the new law, hunting will be considered "not as an activity to be stifled, but by enhancing its role in promoting tourism, defending agriculture, of ancient tradition".
The referendum does not ask for the total abolition of hunting in Piedmont, but for the introduction of the limitation of hunting to four species, the prohibition of hunting on Sundays and on snow-covered ground, the limitation of withdrawals granted to wildlife hunting companies.
Source: The Newspaper