The victory of the No party deprives the prime minister of her aura of invincibility and the technical heart of the reform remains in the background: separation of careers between prosecutors and judges, two CSMs and a High Court to judge magistrates. The broad field seizes the victory and regroups by launching the primaries. Giorgia Meloni gave her all. And today, when the defeat reveals an Achilles’ heel, she confirms what she said right away: “I won’t leave if I lose the referendum”. As Matteo Renzi did in 2016. One year after the end of the legislature, the prime minister regrets a “missed opportunity”, but does not back down. “Popular sovereignty is respected”, he bows bitterly to the verdict. As do his deputy prime ministers Antonio Tajani, leader of Fi (“But no more civil war tones”) and Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, lukewarm in supporting a reform demanded above all by Forza Italia and today also physically distant (on a mission to Hungary to support Orban). Now we will move forward – certainly with a different spirit – without abandoning justice, with the premiership and the electoral law, as NM leader Maurizio Lupi says.
The prime minister will also have to deal with the balance in her coalition. Having rejected the government’s only constitutional reform (“I take note of it”, says the Keeper of the Seals Carlo Nordio), a mortgage is also placed on the fate of members of the sub-government. Like Nordio’s chief of staff Giusi Bartolozzi, who ignited the political conflict by saying “with the victory of the yes vote we will get the magistrates out of the way”. Or like undersecretary Andrea Delmastro, protagonist of a thorny news story on the eve of the vote. Clashes and poisons reached the polling stations, in a consultation that arrived in the midst of the US/Israel and Iran conflict. And of an energy crisis that has caused the prices of bills and fuel to soar.
The broad field immediately understands the second political mandate hidden in this vote, in addition to the primary one which the Avs leaders Angelo Bonelli and Nicola Fratoianni summarize thus: “the Italians have rejected the attack on the Constitution”. First the leader of IV Matteo Renzi and immediately after those of M5S Giuseppe Conte and of the PD Elly Schlein launch the primaries for the leadership that still does not exist of a center-left that has remained united and rewarded by the vote.
The reactions of the opposition after the vote
“The reform was harmful and wrong. Now Meloni and the government must reflect, listen to the country and the true priorities. There is already an alternative majority in the government…”, urges Schlein. “We will interpret this new spring of the country. It is an eviction notice to the prime minister”, Conte pledges as he opens the primaries. While the leader of the ANM Cesare Parodi resigns, there is joy and satisfaction among the no committees. The civic one emphasizes a “vote politician”https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/politica/2026/03/24/la-netta-vittoria-del-no-al-referendum-il-campo-largo-esulta-e-punta-alle-primarie-d716e17b-ea24-4244-b377-1c1f6010a604/.”I think it is a victory like that of the struggle partisan”, exults President Giovanni Bachelet. While for Enrico Grosso, president of the No committee close to the ANM, “those who wanted to weaken the independence of the robes lost”. On the yes side, however, there is talk of a “battle lost”https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/politica/2026/03/24/la-netta-vittoria-del-no-al-referendum-il-campo-largo-esulta-e-punta-alle-primarie-d716e17b-ea24-4244-b377-1c1f6010a604/.”We gave it our all, no regrets”, says the president of Sì Riforma Nicolò Zanon. The magistrates in Naples toast and sing ‘Bella Ciao’ while the leader of the CGIL Maurizio Landini calls the square in Rome. Around the Triton fountain the wide field, with Schlein and Conte, explodes with joy. They shout the slogan ‘Long live Italy that resists’ without however asking for Meloni’s resignation. With the exception of Renzi, who instead stings the prime minister: “I resigned, the word of the people is listened to, now have courage, you resign, don’t be Don Abbondio”. Certainly the broad camp will not let go of the government’s first real political defeat. “From today in Palazzo Chigi there is a lame duck”, comments the senator Filippo Sensi. And one year after the political elections, the electoral campaign has actually begun.
Conte: this vote is an eviction notice for the government
«It’s a very strong political signal. After four years and four budget laws, the government is empty-handed. They made a single reform which was rejected by the citizens and this despite a referendum campaign also carried out by Meloni personally, with unified networks.” And “this vote is an eviction notice for the government.” The leader of the M5s Giuseppe Conte supported this in an interview with Corriere della Sera, Messaggero and Fatto Daily, underlining that «the wind has changed, the government has lost in a very political vote. There is no longer any habituation to this executive. A new season has opened, a new spring.” On the possibility of taking the field for the primaries for whoever will lead the center-left, Conte said that “there is an availability, which must be examined with my community”. «I am thinking – he explained – of real primaries, so broad as to create a long wave and certainly not of a consultation suffocated by party apparatuses that manage and administer them. With the hundred spaces of democracy opened by the M5s in the next few weeks we will collect citizens’ proposals and then bring them to the entire progressive coalition.” After the referendum outcome, Conte then said he expected «a much worse political climate within the majority. It wouldn’t surprise me if they started to fall apart and criticize each other’s inabilities.” As for the new electoral law, Conte is categorical: «It is a super-scam and a move of desperation. We are ready to block them again.” Even the reform of the premiership, in his opinion, the Italians would “send back to the sender, as they did with a reform that I renamed injustice”.
Schlein, “An alternative majority already exists”
«The vote says that there is already an alternative majority in the country and we progressive forces have a responsibility to organize this hope. A responsibility we all feel. The over 14 million people who voted no, 5 million more than those who had chosen Pd M5s and Avs at the European elections, demonstrate that there is a majority different from the one in office and we want to build a proposal that lives up to expectations”, with “health, work, home and school” at the centre. Thus the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein in an interview with Repubblica and la Stampa. Responding to M5s leader Giuseppe Conte, who launched the primaries for the centre-left, Schlein said he was “absolutely available to run” to choose “who will lead the progressive coalition”. Returning to the referendum, Schlein said that, in his opinion, «when the turnout is close to 60%, one cannot fail to see the strong political message addressed first and foremost to the government, which attempted to modify the Constitution on its own, imposing an armored text on Parliament without any possibility of amending it. An unacceptable forcing, rightly punished at the polls.” Young people, he added, “made a difference in this referendum and they did it despite having been unfairly deprived of their right to vote outside the office”. From Italy, he concluded, “has come the first real setback of the nationalist right which throughout the world, from Orban’s Hungary to Trump’s America, is cultivating a precise plan: to weaken the autonomy of the judiciary in order to weaken it and put it under the control of the executive”.
Renzi, “Meloni has lost the trust of Italians”
«I say this because I’ve been through it: from today Meloni has lost his magic touch. For four years she seemed invincible, now everyone will doubt her.” And “the spell is over. Our prime minister is no longer the daughter of the people, but a woman of the Palace who has lost the people’s trust. She will continue to govern because she has the trust of the parliamentarians who are terrified of going home but no longer has the trust of the citizens”. Thus the leader of Italia Viva Matteo Renzi in an interview with Stampa, Messaggero and Qn. “In abstraction – he adds – the prime minister would have two paths before her: choosing whether to break everything up and go to early elections, but she won’t do so, because resigning takes courage. And therefore she will choose the second path: to survive another year, while everyone around her will elbow each other. It will be a very tiring path.” From now until the autumn of 2027, he continues, “a great opportunity opens up for the center-left, under two conditions: the primaries must be free and open”. This is because, he reasons, “Meloni has lost. And with her that embarrassing ruling class made up of the Tajanis, the Bartolozzis, the Delmastros. As for the centre-left, it is clear that not only are those who voted No, but there is also a section of reformists who voted Yes, starting with those of the Democratic Party. Therefore the political space is enormous”.