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ROME: Italians began voting Sunday in a two-day referendum on reforms that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says will make the judiciary more independent -- but which critics argue will do the opposite.
The poll risks turning into a referendum on the far-right leader herself, ahead of parliamentary elections next year.
Meloni’s hard-right government wants to change Italy’s constitution to separate the role of judges and prosecutors and reform their oversight body.
She says the plan is essential to guarantee impartiality and improve the functioning of Italy’s creaking justice system.
It will make it “more modern, more meritocratic, more autonomous, more accountable and above all, free from political constraints”, Meloni said in a video this week.
But critics condemn it as a political power grab that fails to address the real challenges, from years-long trials to prison overcrowding.
Elly Schlein, the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, said it was badly drafted and “weakens the independence of the judiciary”.
“We have to vote ‘no’ because the independence of our judicial system is fundamental,” Margherita Rossi, a 21-year-old student who came from Milan to Rome to vote, told AFP.
“There is no turnout threshold: even if only 10 people show up, they’ll still be able to change the constitution.”
Opinion polls show the two camps are neck-and-neck.
A decisive “No” would be a blow for Meloni, who has led an uncharacteristically stable coalition government since October 2022.
However, she has dismissed suggestions that she might quit if she loses.
“I worry about what they could do after if it is passed,” said Francescantonio De Luca, a doctor and officer in the army.
Voting closes at 1400 GMT on Monday, with preliminary results expected later that day.
- ‘Execution squads’ -
The late conservative prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was famous for his battles with the judiciary, which he accused of being left-wing.
Meloni and her ministers have also repeatedly attacked rulings they claim are too lenient, particularly on the issue of immigration.
Their reform has sparked intense opposition within the judiciary, with more than 80 percent of members of Italy’s National Magistrates Association staging a one-day strike last year.
The referendum campaign has been hard fought and bitter.
In a public spat last month, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio -- who had called criticism from judges “petulant litanies” -- said the reform would correct a “para-mafia mechanism” within the judiciary.
Giusi Bartolozzi, Nordio’s chief of staff, also drew widespread criticism when she said during a talk show that the reform would “get rid of” magistrates who operated like “execution squads”.
