(Stampalibera.com) - The popular referendum last Sunday ended with a victory that came close to unanimity: the 98.2 percent of citizens want the Berliner is Wasserbetriebe managed exclusively by the City
Even the water returns to Berlin public. To decide on a referendum that asked the citizens of Berlin, Sunday, Feb. 13, to say "yes" or "no" to the proposal to remove the water management to private.
If in Italy you must still vote on the issue of privatization of water services , and if in a city like Paris has already been decided a long time to make them public again, today also decided that Berlin can no longer associate speculation and profits to a good important as water. Berliners have in fact voted "yes" to the referendum for the annulment of the partial privatization of water services management company. An overwhelming victory to say the least: more than 678,000 voters, 98.2% voted in favor of a U-turn, claiming even greater transparency of contracts.
"A essential commodity like water can not be a source of profit, we want to come back in public hands, "said the spokesman of the organizing committee, Thomas Rodek. And it will. That the referendum was a victory for Berlin, yes they need at least 616,571, and 665,713 have arrived. Andreas Fuchs, the cashier of the referendum committee, said: "We had hoped, but I did not expect more, given the low turnout in the morning." He adds: "It is proof that much can be done with few resources." Very few resources, since the Committee had only 12 000 euro to organize everything: money derived entirely from donations (and the organizers of the failed referendum on religion in school two years ago had raised hundreds of thousands of euro).
The request was for the full publication of the contract by which the German capital in 1999, trying to raise cash, he decided to sell the companies RWE and Veolia 49.9% of the municipal water services, the Berliner Wasserbetriebe. A contract referred to only in November of 2010 the promoters of the referendum have been published by the Berlin City Hall: 700 pages explaining the process of partial privatization. A dossier showing how the city has guaranteed high profit margins for both parties involved, RWE and Veolia. That, within ten years, have grossed more profits of the entire city of Berlin 1.3 billion against 696 million. Now the objective of the referendum committee is still to fully restore the Berliner Wasserbetriebe in public hands. Avoiding possible to replicate what happened in nearby Potsdam, where, despite the company's management of water services has been rimunicipalizzata ten years ago, prices continued to rise. And to charge a cubic meter of water today than in Berlin (5.82 €).
On a Sunday between April 15 and June 15, Italians will be able to deliver on the question regarding the termination of the Ronchi Decree, by which in 2009 was ruled that the water service is not longer be managed by public companies, but only given to companies that are either totally private, or privately owned for at least 40%. The second question concerns the cancellation of the "Environmental Code", a rule providing for a share of profit on the fee for water service, the so-called "return on investment."
According to the Italian critics of the referendum on the water "privatization can only improve the quality of services." For supporters of the referendum in Berlin, however, following the partial privatization of water services municipal water prices have increased by 35% ranks among the highest of any other German city. In Berlin, a cubic meter of water costs € 5.12, 3.26 in Cologne. Let's keep in mind, when this spring we will go to the polls. Dorothea Harlin also reminds us of the referendum committee in Berlin, which stresses the importance of international success at the polls on February 13, noting that "not only Berliners, but citizens around the world are fighting for water," .
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