Voting in the European elections for thousands of Italians residing in Belgium has turned into a delirium which risks preventing them from going to the polls on election weekend. At the consulate of rue de Livourne already in the morning the queue of people soon reached outside the building, with people waiting for their turn for hours collect your voter card that the Italian institutions should have send them home. “There will be 300 people in line at the moment – says an Italian present at Ilfattoquotidiano.it -, but already many, especially elderly people, have left preferring give up your right to vote“.
There are approximately Italians registered with the Aire in Belgium 280 thousand, according to the data available on institutional websites. If you consider that 20% of those entitled to vote have not received their voter ID card, we are talking about several thousand people. Ilfattoquotidiano.it attempted to contact the consular registry in an attempt to receive more precise information and data, but the lines were clogged, while the embassy said they were not informed of the inconveniences.
To vote in Belgium, Italian residents must present themselves, just like in Italy, showing their voter card, but according to what people present outside the consulate reported, officials announced that around 20% of the documents were never delivered. A delay due to the disservices of the Belgian post office, they justify themselves, but what matters is that a delay has now begun race against time to assert their right to vote: “They gave us a sheet to fill out in which we had to declare that we had never received the card, so we could get a new one. But we have already been in line for two hours and many have left.” There are those who, as mentioned, are too old and cannot spend all this time in line, those who cannot be absent from work for hours, those who prefer not to spend 3-4 euros an hour parking in the center of Brussels to wait your turn.
Then there is another big problem that must be considered, namely that linked to those who live outside the big cities. TO Brussels or where there is a consulate that carries out the voter ID distribution service, the inconvenience is reduced, so to speak, to the interminable hours in a row waiting for your document. However, those who live outside should get in the car, get to the nearest consulate and prepare for the ordeal that all other fellow citizens have had to go through: “My brother lives in GodinneNeighbor Namur – says a girl waiting in line like many others – She would like to apply by email because she can’t come all the way here and get in line. If your request, as is likely, is not accepted, you will not vote.”
Problems also for those who have recently moved to the country and, consequently, have signed up for theAire only for a few months. More than one person was told that the cancellation from the Italian registry was successful, but the same is not true for the electoral register: thus, these people are resident abroad but still voting in their old residence. The solution? Send a Pec to the old Municipality and ask for the clearance to the vote in a foreign location. But only Rome and Milan they have a recognized mailbox dedicated to this type of request, for those who were resident elsewhere the attempt looks more like a message in a bottle. In the hope that an answer will arrive before Friday, when the polls open in Belgium.
Meanwhile, the more time passes, the more the average age of those who decide to remain in line in front of the consulate on rue de Livourne decreases. The others, due to commitments or exhaustion, give up and return home resigned to the fact that they will not be able to cast their vote. And a young girl explains how this method is absurd if seen through the eyes of a foreigner: “I have a Bulgarian friend – she says – who explained their method to me. It’s very simple, if you are registered in the local registry office and have the right to vote, your name will be present on the lists and, therefore, at the polling stations. Just show up with a valid ID and you can vote. Sending ballots home is not only a cumbersome system and subject to inconveniences like this, but also expensive.”
Twitter: @GianniRosini
