Italy and Austria votes could plunge EU into crisis

ROME (AFP) — Italians headed to the polls Sunday for a constitutional referendum on which reformist Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has staked his future.

Whatever the outcome of a vote being anxiously watched in capitals across Europe and carefully scrutinized on trading floors around the world, it will lead to change.

If the center-left Renzi’s proposals to streamline a 68-year-old parliamentary system are voted down, he has vowed to resign.

That would usher in a period of political uncertainty and potential economic turmoil for the country and its European Union allies.

The most apocalyptic scenarios involve a crisis of investor confidence causing the failure of a rescue scheme for Italy’s most indebted banks, triggering a broader crisis across the eurozone.

But markets last week, while jittery, appeared to have discounted that risk.

If Renzi wins, the country’s youngest ever prime minister will be energized in his bid to transform Italy.

But critics say Italy will have been deprived of democratic checks and balances put in place in the aftermath of World War II following the disastrous rule of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

Victory for Renzi will mean a new mandate to pursue reforms he sees as key to unshackling Italy’s creativity from the influence of a self-serving political caste that has exploited institutional weakness to stymie change.

“If we miss this chance it won’t come back for 20 years,” he warned voters before campaigning was suspended at midnight on Friday.

Italians appear to realize how much is at stake.

Voters, who have been known to head to the beach rather than the ballot box when less important referendums have fallen on a sunny day, have spent weeks passionately embracing the pros and cons of the proposed reforms.

A bumper turnout looks like the only prediction anyone can make with any certainty, as polls have been banned since Nov. 18.

Up until then the “No” camp was leading comfortably — but with a quarter of the electorate undecided, Renzi is counting on a silent majority of shy reformers to pull off a surprise turnaround.

After the Brexit and Donald Trump victories, populism has been a factor, and the Five Star Movement led by comic Beppe Grillo would see a “No” vote as its stepping stone to government.

Austria far-right on cusp of power

VIENNA (AFP) — Austrians returned to the polls on Sunday in a bitterly fought marathon election, which could propel the European Union’s first far-right president to power and boost the anti-establishment tide sweeping many countries.

Norbert Hofer of the hardline Freedom Party (FPOe) hopes to emerge victorious after he narrowly lost to his Greens-backed rival in a first run-off in May, which was annulled over ballot count breaches.

Boosted by Brexit and Donald Trump’s shock U.S. election win, smooth-tongued gun enthusiast Hofer has vowed to “get rid of the dusty establishment,” seek closer ties with Russia and fight against “Brussels centralizing power.” “We want to be part of the EU but not to lose our identity,” voter Helwig Leibinger told AFP at Hofer’s final rally in Vienna on Friday.

“We want a commander-in-chief of the armed forces who can give the right orders.”