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Italy: Meloni becomes lame duck premier after referendum defeat What the vote represents is a widespread radicalisation among the youth and the working class.This was already evident last autumn during the huge mobilisations in solidarity with the people of Gaza in the massive general strike of 3 October, when two million people took to the streets in around 100 cities. That strike brought to the surface the real anger that was simmering below the surface. It combined the anger at what was happening in Gaza with the frustration of millions of workers and youth at the social and economic situation they were having to suffer in Italy. Meloni has been a keen supporter of Trump and his policies. She backed him, as well as Netanyahu, as a genocide was carried out against the people of Gaza. She has been completely subservient, prostrating herself at the feet of Trump. She thought that by doing this, she was on to a winner. But she massively miscalculated and misread the real mood in the country. The mood that we saw during the general strike for Gaza has not gone away.However, in spite of the huge mobilisations of the autumn, at least on the surface, it seemed as if nothing was moving on the political front. Meloni remained in office, while the weak, lily-livered and spineless official left – made up of the Democratic Party, the Five Stars Movement and a number of smaller forces – offered no credible alternative. There seemed to be no viable political force that could express the real anger that had been expressed in the October events. But it finally found a way of expressing itself in the referendum. A huge defeat The youth turned out in big numbers. In the age group of 18-28 year-olds, the turnout was actually 67 percent, much higher than the national average. Compare this to the 2022 general election, where the abstention rate among the under-35s was higher than the national average. And the ‘No’ vote among the 18-34 year-olds in this referendum was over 61 percent.17 of Italy’s twenty regions voted ‘No’, with massive majorities across most of the south. In Naples the ‘No’ vote reached 75 percent. But even in a region like Lombardy in the north, which voted 53.5 percent ‘Yes’, the main city, Milan, saw a majority ‘No’ vote of 58 percent. The vote also had a clear class character: for example in Milan, Turin, and Genoa, the ‘Yes’ vote won a majority in the wealthier city centre seats, while in the working-class suburbs the ‘No’ vote was massive.As the day of the referendum grew closer, opinion polls began showing that there was a real possibility that Meloni could lose the vote. One could see the panic in the government as they began to issue more and more absurd statements, claiming such things as a vote ‘Yes’ would fight the paedophiles, would bring down crime, etc. This did not do Meloni any favours. They were in a hole, and all they seemed capable of was digging even deeper. In the end, it was a huge defeat.Immediately after the vote, Meloni tried to clean up the image of her government, by calling on the more openly corrupt elements listed above to resign. She also issued a short video clip of her acknowledging the “will of the people”, while at the same time saying that she intends to continue with the mandate the people gave her in 2022. She claimed that the victory of the ‘No’ vote in the referendum was not a vote against her government. She had invested everything in a victory in the referendum in the hope of strengthening her position, so that she could then proceed with her reactionary policies. That is precisely why millions of young people and workers turned out to vote. They saw the referendum as an opportunity to strike a blow against the government and punish it for its arrogance. It was not long ago – October 2025 – that she was openly boasting about how her government was the third longest lasting since the Second World War. She seemed to be riding high as she claimed to represent the Italian people, while there seemed to be no viable opposition that could bring her government down. It sometimes happens in such circumstances that politicians get overconfident. But the fact remains that not only has she not improved things for the mass of working people, she has actually worsened them.‘Dead man walking’ Meloni made many promises back in 2022, but she has reneged on all of them. Her coalition promised to undo a previous pension reform that had increased the age of retirement. They recently increased it further. They promised to cut taxes, but the overall tax burden has gone up. She promised to massively cut the price of fuel, by reducing government tax revenues on it. That promise never saw the light of day. The list is endless.Not satisfied with all this, however, new laws restricting the right to organise street protests came in recently, and her government was getting ready to crack down on the right to strike and the very right to express dissent. The problem is that Meloni’s image, and her authority, have now been severely damaged. Even though the next general election is not due until December 2027, her government is now a ‘dead man walking’. The question is: are the ‘centre-left’ parties capable of giving the lead to bring it down? The problem is that they are only capable of thinking in electoral terms. The angry youth and working class are being asked to wait until the general election at the end of next year. They are being asked to live with the security decrees, the increases in military spending, the worsening of pension reform, the collapse of the healthcare system, the worsening cost-of-living crisis, etc…The reason the leaders of the opposition are not preparing to mobilise now is because they do not have a programme that can solve the crisis facing the workers of Italy. Unemployment is growing; inflation is about to see an acceleration on the back of the Iran war. Prior to the Meloni government, these people were in power and they carried out counter-reform after counter-reform. That explains why Meloni, whose party stood at 4 percent, was able to score such a huge victory back in 2022.The conditions are now being prepared for a possible victory of the opposition at the next general election. But their track record shows that they do not have the solutions to the problems faced by the workers and youth, those same layers who massively voted ‘No’ against this government. Some commentators have stated that this recent defeat of Meloni in the referendum does not translate automatically into a victory for the centre-left.The vote confirms what we, the revolutionary communists, have been saying for some time. There is widespread anger, especially among the youth. There is widespread radicalisation that is not finding an expression in the existing opposition parties. These parties could win an election by default, but they will by no means give a true expression to the present level of anger in the country.That is why we must redouble our efforts to build a genuine party of the working class, one that tells the workers the truth and gives them a voice. That is what our Italian comrades of the Partito Comunista Rivoluzionario are working to build. https://marxist.com/italy-meloni-becomes-lame-duck-premier-after-referendum-defeat.htm Back |
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