Most Vicenza residents opposed the new U.S. base and wanted a referendum

Evidence

An October 2006 survey by a prominent Italian political scientist found that 61 percent of Vicenza residents opposed the base, while 85 percent supported a referendum to decide the plan’s fate. In 2008, it appeared this wish would come true: in response to a lawsuit brought by base opponents, a regional court ordered work on the base suspended and decreed a local referendum to decide Dal Molin’s fate. The court found the government’s approval of the plan on the basis of nothing more than a verbal agreement to be “absolutely incompatible” with the law. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 932

Categorization

• XREF: Undercuts the book’s earlier claim that base supporters in Vicenza dismissed opposition as a small minority.