Five referendums intended to undermine Giorgia Meloni’s government have instead “brought down” leftist opposition forces, according to the prime minister’s Fratelli d’Italia party, after too few voters bothered turning up at the polls.
L’unico vero obiettivo di questo referendum era far cadere il #GovernoMeloni. Alla fine, però, sono stati gli italiani a far cadere voi. pic.twitter.com/TLBdrCIH2l
— Fratelli d'Italia 🇮🇹 (@FratellidItalia) June 9, 2025
Turnout stalled at just under 30%, well shy of the quorum requirement of 50% plus one—and that was despite polls being open for two days. In the city of Bolzano, just 15.9% of voters went to the polls.
The referendums were initiated by a citizens’ initiative, backed by civil society organisations and major trade unions, all of which campaigned in favour of the proposals. Half a million signatures are required to trigger a national referendum in Italy.
The referendums included four trade union-backed questions on labour protections and another on reducing the residency requirement for non-EU citizens applying for citizenship from 10 to five years. The latter of these would reportedly have allowed 2.5 million foreign nationals—that is, about half of Italy’s foreign population—to apply for citizenship. Fratelli d’Italia said that all of them were intended to “bring down” Meloni.
Giovanbattista Fazzolari, an aide to the PM, said “the result is clear: the government emerges stronger, and the Left weaker.”
Not that the Left is willing to give up just yet. Riccardo Magi, leader of the liberal party +Europa, who also headed the committee for the failed citizenship referendum, is now looking to shift the goalposts to make it easier for unsupported measures to pass, by eliminating the turnout requirement altogether. He described the current quorum as “a profound vulnerability in Italy’s democratic framework,” although removing it would presumably enable policies with next-to-no democratic support to come into effect.
Deputy PM Antonio Tajani, whose Forza party joked about being “at the beach” while polling was open, is looking the other way, arguing that the amount of money wasted on these referendums suggests “we may need a higher threshold of signatures” for a vote to take place at all in the future.
Scusate se oggi non abbiamo postato nulla, eravamo tutti al mare. pic.twitter.com/230idL4jfQ
— Forza Italia (@forza_italia) June 8, 2025