Europe holds its breath as Italy votes for change
ROME ( AFP) — Italians went to the polls yesterday in 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-yearold 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.
Critics said 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 selfserving 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.