The boom in turnout (58.9%) rewards the “No”. Meloni: “We respect the Italians’ decision, we will move forward.”
The referendum on justice was rejected. This is the verdict when only half of the sections have been scrutinized. The “No” side successfully managed to turn the consultations on career separation into a political vote against the government.
The results
When they were scrutinized 57,771 sections out of 61,533, the No is ahead with 53.78%, while the Yes does not go beyond 46.22%. The justice reform was therefore not confirmed.
Even the first ones Exit Poll published at the close of the polls confirmed the trend. According to the projection of Youtrend for Sky TG24, the No would be ahead with 52.5%, while the Yes would follow with 47.5%. The margin of error, however, allows for surprises, being over 2 percentage points (i.e., Yes could still easily end up ahead).
The Exit Polls of more or less agree Opinion for Rai, with the No given between 49 and 53% and the Yes in the 47-51% range. Swg for 7 gives exactly the same range. In other words, it is still early to understand who will win.
The prime minister’s first comment Giorgia Meloni arrived via social media: “The Italians have decided. And we respect this decision. We will move forward, as we always havewith responsibility, determination and respect towards the Italian people and towards Italy”.
Speaking on Quarta Repubblica, the FdI group leader in the Senate Lucio Malan stated: “We have nothing to reproach ourselves for, we have maintained a commitment to the voters. We had a program where there was this, there was a heavy campaign where things were attributed that didn’t exist“.
The “No” side immediately started talking too much. John Bacheletpresident of the Civil Society Committee for the No, said he was “happy” with the result, adding that he thought of this “victory as that of the partisan struggle or the referendum with very little margin between monarchy and Republic, and not for us but also for all those of the Yes party, because it is a guarantee for all citizens and everyone will be happy in the long run that the no vote won”.
Shorter, but equally absurd in the message conveyed, was the leader of the 5 Star Movement Giuseppe Conte: “We did it! Long live the Constitution!”.
The referendum question
Voters were asked to confirm or reject the constitutional law approved by Parliament, which modifies seven articles of the Constitution regarding the judiciary.
At the heart of the reform is the clear separation of careers between judges and prosecutorswith the Nordio reform which would completely eliminate the possibility of changing careers.
The text also provides the division of the current CSM into two distinct bodiesone for the judges, one for the prosecutors, and the creation of a new High Disciplinary Court. Since this is a confirmatory referendum pursuant to art. 138 of the Constitution, no quorum is required: Whoever gets the most votes wins.
Record turnout
It can already be said that the turnout is record: at the close of the polls, according to the first data from the Eligendo platform, 58.9% of those entitled to vote voted.
An unprecedented result in the recent Italian referendum panorama. In 2025, for the referendums to repeal work and citizenship, participation at the same time had stopped at 22.73%; in 2022 at 20.9%; in 2020, due to the constitutional referendum on the cut in parliamentarians, it was 39.37%.
The turnout figure for this referendum is therefore the highest since 1995 for a consultation in which voting takes place over two days.
The President of the ANM resigns
A few minutes before the polls closed Cesare Parodi has resigned from the position of president of the National Association of Magistrates (Anm). The statement was sent to the Central Steering Committee a few minutes before 3pm.
The curious choice to announce his resignation a few minutes before 3pm, as far as we know, it would be linked to due personal reasons to the health condition of a family member.
