Editorial: Amending the Constitution

If there is one thing that characterises the current government, it is conducting politics with the sole criterion being its narrow partisan interest.

To date, there has been no exception to the rule – not in the economy, not in public administration, and not even with issues of national import.

By all appearances, it is not even exempting the process of amending the constitution.

It is self-evident that the country’s basic law must not be subjected to any kind of partisan planning. It is the document around which the life of society is fundamentally organised.

In this case, it is not only that basic principle that is being violated. This time, the government is using the constitutional revision process not to amend the constitution, but rather to block any amendments that a future parliamentary majority may seek.

To recall Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s famed novel The Leopard, the government is declaring that it will change the Constitution, so as not to change anything.

Does the country need yet another revision which no one will remember after a while, and that will put off to the distant future the substantial amendments that the country needs?

The answer is no. On the contrary, what is needed is a climate of consensus, and a substantial dialogue on the way the Constitution will be adapted to meet the challenges of the new era.