Rome (EFE).- With more than two-thirds of the votes counted, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lost the referendum on her controversial judicial reform on Monday, rejected by more than 54% of voters.
According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, 45.98% of Italians supported the reform, while 54.02% opposed it.
Prominent opposition leaders, such as Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte, have already celebrated the result: “We made it. Long live the Constitution,” Conte wrote on X.
“The result seems clear to me: we had a very high democratic turnout, and a clear and resounding victory for the ‘no,'” the former prime minister declared at a press conference.
The secretary of the Democratic Party (PD) and opposition leader Elly Schlein has announced a public appearance at 5:30 pm local time, and the country’s largest union, CGIL, has called for a celebration on Monday afternoon in Rome’s central Piazza Barberini.
This reform was Meloni’s major legislative project, although approved by Parliament in October, it needed to be endorsed in this popular consultation because it did not achieve at least two-thirds of the votes as a constitutional reform.
The reform aimed to separate the careers of judges and prosecutors, currently grouped under the term “magistrates” in Italy, and divide the Superior Council of the Judiciary, the judicial branch’s self-governing body, into two entities. The reform also established drawing lots as the method of election for its members.
Meloni has distanced her political future from the referendum’s outcome and plans to complete her term in 2027. However, the opposition now frames it as a referendum on her leadership.
“This is a warning to this government, a very strong political warning,” Conte warned.
It is Meloni’s first major defeat since she took office in Oct. 2022. She won the elections by forming a coalition with the far-right League of Matteo Salvini and the “Pro-Berlusconi” Forza Italia of Antonio Tajani.
Perhaps the governmental party most interested in this reform, Forza Italia, has regretted that the electoral campaign before the referendum “was not about its merits,” according to statements by its spokesman in the Chamber of Deputies, Paolo Barelli.
Former Prime Minister and leader of the centrist Italia Viva, Matteo Renzi, who resigned in 2016 after losing another constitutional referendum, celebrated Meloni’s “resounding defeat.”
As of Monday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that she would “press ahead” despite losing the referendum on her judicial reform, also lamenting the “missed opportunity” to modernize the country.
“The Italian people have decided, and we will respect this decision. We will move forward with responsibility, determination, and respect for the Italian people and for Italy,” Meloni said in a video posted on her X account.
The leader emphasized that her government has delivered on its promises by pushing through a judicial reform that was part of her campaign platform.
Meloni also argued that her party stood by the proposal until the end before ultimately leaving the final decision in the hands of the citizens. EFE
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