Advertisement

Italian PM announces retirement after referendum loss

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has announced he will step down, after exit polls showed he has lost a referendum on constitutional reform. 

Mr Renzi, who had promised to resign if his flagship project was defeated, addressed the nation as the results trickled in after midnight on Sunday Rome time. 

An exit poll by the Piepoli Institute/IPR for state television station RAI, estimated the ‘No’ vote at 54-58 per cent against 42-46 per cent for ‘Yes’.

Two other polls gave ‘No’ a similar lead of at least 10 points.

The euro immediately fell against the dollar on the exit polls, slipping to $US1.058 from $US1.063.

The result represents a fresh blow to the European Union, which is struggling to overcome an array of crises and was eager for Mr Renzi to continue his reform drive in the euro zone’s heavily indebted, third-largest economy.

Defeat could also prompt fresh market ructions, especially in the banking sector which has lost almost half its value this year on the Milan bourse, hit by fears over its huge exposure to bad loans accumulated during years of economic downturn.

Mr Renzi, 41, took office in 2014 promising to shake up hidebound Italy and presenting himself as an anti-establishment “demolition man” determined to crash through a smothering bureaucracy and redraw the nation’s creaking institutions.

Sunday’s referendum, designed to hasten the legislative process by reducing the powers of the upper house Senate and regional authorities, was to have been his crowning achievement.

Italian opposition parties said Mr Renzi should resign immediately.

“Renzi is going to go and with him the powerful lobbies who were also defeated,” said Renato Brunetta, the parliamentary leader of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party.

Advertisement
Stay informed, daily
A FREE subscription to The New Daily arrives every morning and evening.
The New Daily is a trusted source of national news and information and is provided free for all Australians. Read our editorial charter.
Copyright © 2025 The New Daily.
All rights reserved.