Giorgia Meloni has discovered these days that the consensus that raised her to the Chigi Palace is not a blank check. And also that his aura of invulnerabilitythe one that seemed to protect her against any adversity, has turned out not to be so. The resounding rejection of the Italians in the referendum to ratify their reform of the judiciary has meant the hardest hit for the leader of the Brothers of Italy (FdI) since she took office. What began as an ambitious architecture to remodel the State has ended up colliding with a wall of civil distrust which not only interrupts the love affair with his electorate, but also anticipates a much more eventful final stretch of his term than expected.
The analysis in the corridors of Roman power is practically unanimous: the so-called “premiered” —the jewel in Meloni’s crown for citizens to directly elect the prime minister, one of the major reforms he wanted to propose—is clinically dead. Likewise, the reform of the electoral law, if it manages to advance, will now face a minefield of legislative and social obstacles.
“Calm down”: the message of the moderate vote
With this, those from Meloni have activated the damage control protocol immediately. “I assume the political responsibility for the defeat”said, for example, the Minister of Justice and one of the architects of the text, Carlo Nordio, after knowing the results. However, the problem for the Executive is not only technical, but sociological.
“Some are coming very difficult months for Meloni and his Government,” Francesco Cancellato, director of the digital media FanPage and critic of Meloni’s Government, explains to EL PERIÓDICO. “This is a demonstration of a very strong dissent that they did not expect, coming from young people, big cities and the south of Italy. It also reflects a Moderate Italy that he is saying that he has seen a democratic risk,” adds this chronicler, who this Tuesday sarcastically wrote an editorial titled ‘Smile, now the worst is coming.’
Lorenzo Pregliasco, from the YouTrend institute, moves along this same line, who has highlighted that the rejection of the reform at the polls was not an amendment to the entire right, but rather a defense of institutions. “Within the ‘no’ there was a moderate vote that appreciates the separation of powers and wanted to send a signal to the Government: ‘calm down,'” the analyst said.
A grown left, but without a majority
The center-left, which until now only accumulated scars in front of the right-wing roller, has turned the result into a catharsis. “Meloni resign,” chanted the bases in the center of Rome. The media aggressiveness he was not left behind; the diary Tomorrowa reference for investigative journalism, came to the harsh headline: “If he had decency, Meloni would resign.”
However, everything indicates that the opposition euphoria It’s quite premature. Although the citizen setback is undeniable, the long-term effects do not seem to be destabilizers for the survival of the Executive. Meloni has lost its great reform, but not your power baseas confirmed by the data that has been known after the vote.
According to the latest polls, despite the ‘no’ victory, the most of Italians believe that Meloni must exhaust the legislature. Even among those who rejected the judicial reform, 37% want the prime minister to continue in office, compared to 47% who demand her departure. “It would be better than the left don’t get your hopes up“Pregliasco has also warned, emphasizing that a constitutional defeat is not equivalent, for the moment, to a change of political cycle.
However, the truth is that Meloni is now entering an unknown phase: that of shortage management policy. Without the horizon of his great constitutional reform, his Government will have to focus on a economy (which is made worse by the ongoing wars) and in a daily management that, after this referendum, will be observed with a magnifying glass for an Italy that no longer trusts blank checks.
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