No one should stand aside - Mattarella (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, January 17 - President Sergio Mattarella has said no citizen should not consider themselves separate from Italy's political life when asked about the prospect of high abstention levels in the March 4 general election. "The responsibility for our national community, the republic, falls prevalently on those who have asked to hold institutional positions and obtained this," Mattarella told Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana.
    "But it also falls on each of us citizens, who are called on to do our part for the common good.
    "Those who authentically feel their status as a citizen do not feel like a creditor who only makes demands, but feel that we are all creditors and debtors in our behaviour.
    "No one should stand aside or limit themselves to watching".
    Mattarella added that his job is to make sure the Constitution is respected in its entirety. "It is not for me to say whether initiatives to amend (the Constitution), successful or not successful, were opportune or inopportune," Mattarella said in an interview that will be in Thursday's edition of Famiglia Cristiana.
    "It is up to me to say, and ensure, that the Constitution in force is respected and observed not just in its principles, but also in the second part". The second part of the Constitution sets the details of Italy's political machinery.
    Ex-premier and Democratic Party (PD) leader Matteo Renzi's plan to change the Constitution to streamline the Italian lawmaking process and make it less expensive was rejected in a referendum in December 2016.