Turnout: 55.69%
About this election
On 22-23 March 2026, Italy held a confirmatory constitutional referendum on the so-called "riforma Nordio" — a justice reform championed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government and Justice Minister Carlo Nordio. Voters rejected it, with 53.24% voting No against 46.76% Yes, on a turnout of 55.69%. Because this was a constitutional (confirmatory) referendum, no minimum turnout was required for the result to count, and the No vote settled the question on its merits. The defeat was a significant blow to the Meloni government, which had made overhauling the judiciary a flagship project.
Reforming the relationship between Italy's politicians and its powerful, independent magistracy has been a goal of the Italian right for decades, and Giorgia Meloni's coalition made it a centrepiece of its programme. Parliament approved the constitutional changes, but without the two-thirds majority in both chambers that would have made them final, which under Italian rules opened the door to a confirmatory referendum. The vote therefore became a high-profile test of the government's standing, roughly midway through the legislature and ahead of the next general election expected in 2027.
The package would have made several structural changes to the judiciary: formally separating the career tracks of judges and prosecutors (who in Italy currently belong to the same body and can move between roles), splitting the self-governing High Council of the Judiciary into two separate councils, choosing many of their members by lottery rather than election, and creating a new High Disciplinary Court to handle cases against magistrates. Supporters argued it would make prosecutors more accountable and trials fairer; opponents, including much of the magistracy, warned it would weaken the independence of the courts and tilt the balance toward political power.
Italian constitutional referendums are governed by Article 138 of the Constitution. When parliament passes a constitutional amendment without a two-thirds supermajority in each chamber, a qualified group of legislators, regions or citizens may request that it be put to a popular vote within three months. Critically — and unlike Italy's abrogative referendums under Article 75, which are void unless turnout exceeds 50% — a confirmatory referendum has no turnout quorum: the amendment is approved or rejected by a simple majority of valid votes, whatever the level of participation. That is why the 2026 reform fell on the strength of the No vote itself, not on turnout.
The campaign split along familiar lines, with the governing right urging a Yes and much of the opposition, together with associations of magistrates, campaigning for No. The clear rejection — by more than six points — handed Meloni a notable domestic defeat and reopened the long-running debate over how, if at all, Italy's justice system should be reformed.
The vote followed a broadly north-south pattern familiar from recent Italian elections: the northern regions, where the centre-right is strongest, leaned more toward Yes, while the southern regions delivered some of the heaviest No majorities. The result page maps the outcome region by region, so the geography of support for and opposition to the reform can be read directly.
Italy has held several confirmatory constitutional referendums in recent memory, all decided without a quorum: in 2016 voters rejected Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's sweeping institutional reform by roughly 59% to 41%, prompting his resignation, while in 2020 they approved a cut in the number of members of parliament by about 69% to 31%. The 2026 rejection places the Nordio reform alongside the 2016 vote as a major constitutional change turned down by the electorate.
Coming before the next general election, the defeat denied the Meloni government one of its signature achievements and energised its opponents, while leaving the question of judicial reform unresolved. The government remains in office — a referendum defeat does not bring it down — but the result reshaped the political mood heading toward 2027.
The referendum was the latest round in a confrontation between Italy’s political class and its judiciary that has run for more than three decades, since the “Clean Hands” corruption investigations of the early 1990s reshaped the party system. Centre-right governments in particular have sought to rein in what they see as politicised prosecutions, while magistrates and much of the centre-left defend judicial independence as a constitutional safeguard. By rejecting the Nordio reform, voters left that long-standing balance in place and ensured the argument will continue.
Italian Ministry of the Interior — Eligendo portal — elezioni.interno.gov.it.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.