analysis
The Italians’ no to judicial reform is the most painful defeat that Giorgia Meloni has suffered in her entire political career. The head of government, who until recently seemed unassailable, suddenly appears at a loss.
03/25/2026, 04:4603/25/2026, 04:46
Dominik Straub, Rome / ch media
The self-made video that Giorgia Meloni shared on social media after the defeat was confirmed on Monday evening spoke volumes. The otherwise aggressive and eloquent 49-year-old Roman woman looked pale and rigid into the cell phone camera and reeled off a few prepared, expected sentences: that the government naturally respected the citizens’ decision, that the no to judicial reform was a “missed opportunity” and that despite everything they would continue for the good of the nation. End of announcement. Meloni looked like a watered-down poodle and probably felt like one.
Giorgia Meloni has to accept a setback.Image: keystone
Of course, the head of government had taken into account the possibility of defeat before the vote. But she was not prepared for the fact that it was so clear with 54 to 46 percent of the vote, and with an unusually high vote split of almost 60 percent. Particularly bitter: mobilization and the proportion of no votes were highest among young voters between the ages of 18 and 25.
And because Meloni has been very active in the voting campaign, especially in the last few weeks, and has occasionally used a wrong tone, she knows best that the voting result was, at least in part, a very personal message addressed to herself.
The clear defeat confirms a development that had already begun several months before the vote on the judicial reform: the “luna di miele”, the honeymoon atmosphere between the first female Prime Minister of the Republic and a not insignificant part of the country, which characterized her first three years in office, is over – even if her personal approval ratings of around 40 percent are still respectable compared to many of her European counterparts.
The head of government’s biggest problem
Meloni’s biggest problem is her political and personal closeness to US President Donald Trump. His second presidency is perceived by the vast majority of Italians as a frightening freak show and a threat to democracy and world peace. Partly also in their own party.
Donald Trump has a lot of sympathy for Giorgia Meloni.Image: keystone
Because of his attack against Iran, Meloni’s friend Trump is also being held responsible for the current price increases at the gas pumps, i.e. for personal burdens that are unlikely to disappear quickly. Meloni is now also feeling this, and is already trying to counteract the people’s discontent with a costly reduction in fuel taxes for the state budget.
In addition, there are home-made problems within her Fratelli d’Italia party, above all the mafia headlines that Justice State Secretary Andrea Delmastro is currently making. It is no longer possible to convey to the general public that the party and government leader does not want to let go of her confidant.
One of her predecessors in the government palace, former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, accurately summed up the situation in which Meloni now finds himself after the defeat at the polls:
“If you lose the ‘magic touch’, you can’t act as if nothing happened.”
Yes, but what should Meloni do now to regain her old vigor? Even before the vote, Meloni categorically ruled out the possibility that she would resign, as Renzi did after his own defeat in a constitutional referendum in 2016. But otherwise she and her coalition seem pretty clueless right now.
The only major project failed
The fact is that Giorgia Meloni has failed miserably with the only significant reform that she has presented since her election victory in autumn 2022. The likelihood that she will pull her other two planned major state reforms – strengthening the Prime Minister and expanding federalism – out of the drawer has dropped to practically zero.
Opposition leader Elly Schlein from the social democratic Partito Democratico (PD) is already giving Meloni unsolicited advice:
“Instead of presenting pseudo-reforms for its own benefit, the government should leave the palazzi and listen to the real needs and concerns of its citizens.”
Like: “Inflation, the highest energy prices in Europe, the desolate healthcare system, the decline in industrial production.”
In three and a half years, Meloni’s right-wing coalition has not found any recipes to solve all of these problems. There is little to suggest that enlightenment will arrive in the government palaces by the next parliamentary elections in autumn 2027. It can be said that the race for the prime ministership will be open again in 2027. The vote on the judicial reform has shown that the right-wing coalition can definitely be defeated – and that the head of government has now definitely lost her aura of incontestability. (aargauerzeitung.ch)