Italians Reject Judicial Overhaul, Undermining Meloni
Source: New York Times
Italians have rejected a government plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary, according to results published on Monday, dealing the first major jolt to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s authority since her election three years ago.
Roughly 54 percent of voters, or more than 14 million people, opposed the government’s proposals in a tightly fought referendum held on Sunday and Monday — spurning plans to change how judges and prosecutors are supervised.
The public repudiation represented a significant reversal for Ms. Meloni, who had led one of Italy’s most stable governments since its democracy was restored after the end of World War II. Elected in 2022 at the head of a far-right coalition, Ms. Meloni had then governed more pragmatically than her critics expected, mollifying some of her detractors at home and abroad.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/world/europe/italy-referendum-judiciary-meloni.html?
As recently as this very morning, the New York Times was repeating the polls and conventional wisdom that this referendum vote would be extremely tight. In the end, Meloni and the Italian right were soundly thrashed for the first time in years: the referendum went down in flames, with 54% voting NO, and NO winning even in some right-leaning areas.
Needless to say, the right is already portraying it as "non-political," and I expect the US right will portray it as some des[perately local Italy-only issue. But the truth of the matter is that margin voters and swing voters swung heavily against Meloni in the last week or even few days. Meloni understood this was happening and attributed it to her closeness to Trump. She was trying desperately t distance herself from Trump on Iran and his general anti-European rhetoric. See Giorgia Meloni, Trump's friend in Europe, Seeks Distance on Iran.
One way to read this shockwave election is that Trump is becoming a drag on the Global Right, not just the right at home. Disastrous result for the Bannon-Miller-Trump-MAGA worldview.
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