Renzi stepping down

After the U.K. and U.S., winds of change visit Italy

Another European referendum, this time Italy’s on Sunday, has brought the downfall of a prime minister, this time Matteo Renzi, an ex-mayor of Florence who had been in power since February 2014.

The vote in the referendum, basically intended to reform Italy’s Senate, modernizing its government and making it more efficient, was rejected by 60 percent of those voting. Mr. Renzi had said he would resign if it lost. He plans to leave office in coming days. President Barack Obama had urged him to stay around during a visit to Washington in October, considering him to be a positive and, at 41, younger element in the Italian and European political contexts.

Just as with British Prime Minister David Cameron in the United Kingdom’s June 23 referendum on leaving the European Union, the Italian vote became a referendum on Mr. Renzi’s record as prime minister as much as on the question of modernizing government. The issues that hurt him and influenced the vote included the high level of unemployment in Italy, especially among young people, and a nagging, dangerous problem with Italian banks, estimated to hold nearly $400 billion in bad loans.

The more global aspect of the referendum’s defeat was the fact that it came on the heels of the British vote June 23 and the unexpected election of Donald J. Trump as American president Nov. 8. It is being considered in that regard as a blow to the EU, particularly since some of the possible successors to Mr. Renzi have professed themselves to favor the withdrawal of Italy from the eurozone, where Italy’s is the thirdlargest economy.

The vote against the referendum and Mr. Renzi came largely from Italy’s populist Five Star Movement, headed by entertainer Beppe Grillo, and from the Northern League, a regional party, a traditional opponent of Mr. Renzi’s Democrats.

On the one hand, it is fair to a degree to see Sunday’s referendum “no” as a strike against the EU. On the other hand, Italy has had 63 different prime ministers in 70 years, and the fall of one more, after 33 months, is not extraordinary and should not be overinterpreted. Mr. Renzi may even be asked by Italian president Sergio Mattarella to stay on as head of a caretaker government for some time. Italian politics are fluid and combative and mandates for prime ministers can be short indeed.