Live Briefing: Italy Considers What’s Next After Matteo Renzi Loses Referendum



Italy’s president asks Mr. Renzi to complete budget before resigning

As promised, Mr. Renzi submitted his resignation to Mr. Mattarella on Monday evening at the Quirinale Palace, the president’s official residence, but the president asked Mr. Renzi to defer his resignation to see through the approval of his government’s budget.

“Given the need to complete the parliamentary process to approve the budget law,” Mr. Mattarella asked Mr. Renzi to postpone stepping down until the budget, now being discussed in the Senate, had been passed, according to the statement from the president’s office.

An official from the office said the budget was expected to be passed this week.

Mr. Mattarella’s request was not unusual: His predecessor, Giorgio Napolitano, had “frozen” the resignations of two prime ministers so that pending laws could be passed.

Before his meeting with the president, Mr. Renzi briefly conferred with his cabinet at the Chigi Palace, the prime minister’s residence in Rome, where the night before Mr. Renzi announced in an emotional news conference, “the experience of my government ends here.”

Once Mr. Renzi’s resignation eventually takes effect, Mr. Mattarella will work with Italian political leaders to discuss what comes next. — ELISABETTA POVOLEDO and JASON HOROWITZ

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Italians against constitutional changes celebrated the results of the referendum on Sunday night in Rome. Credit Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

After Italy votes no, preparations begin for new government

Italy greeted the news of Mr. Renzi’s symbolic defeat with uncertainty on Monday. A headline in the daily La Repubblica declaring, “The No Triumphs, Renzi Quits,” echoing the sentiment in most newspapers.

Commentators acknowledged Mr. Renzi’s dignified reaction to what mostly seemed a vote against his tenure, and they called for responsibility from political forces.

“Now the reality is the risk of a return to the swamps and to instability,” Mario Calabresi, editor in chief of La Repubblica, wrote in a front-page editorial on Monday. “A scenario that Italy really doesn’t need.”

Once Mr. Renzi’s resignation is official and he steps down, Mr. Mattarella would then hold talks with the political parties trying to form a caretaker government or call early elections.

According to the Italian news media, one candidate who could lead a temporary government is Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, a technocrat. The speaker of the Senate, Pietro Grasso, a longtime anti-mafia magistrate, is also a possibility.

Although most opposition parties are pushing for quick elections, opponents of Mr. Renzi in his Democratic Party are more inclined to take their time. — GAIA PIANIGIANI

The leader of the Five Star Movement presses for an overhaul

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Beppe Grillo, the leader of the Five Star Movement, during a campaign event on Friday in Turin, Italy. Credit Marco Bertorello/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Beppe Grillo, the leader of the Five Star Movement who campaigned against the proposed constitutional changes and against Mr. Renzi, declared on Monday that “times have changed.”

How much so may depend on Mr. Grillo’s ability to parlay his latest success into a full sweep of the political establishment he has thumbed his nose at for years.

Mr. Grillo, a former comedian, said that Italians should waste no time pressing for a new electoral law and for the dismantling of the old order.

“You should vote as soon as possible,” he said in a blog post on Monday to rally his supporters against the usual jockeying by parties for power in a caretaker government. “The parties will do anything to drag their feet,” he said.

The Five Star Movement won a quarter of the vote in 2013 national elections. Mr. Grillo said then that cooperating with traditional parties in any sort of alliance would be akin to capitulation.

“The existing political class must be expelled immediately,” he said in an interview at that time with The New York Times. — JEFFREY MARCUS

‘No’ votes, from the north to (especially) the south

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A polling station in Rome on Sunday. In the economically struggling regions of Sicily and Sardinia, which voted against the changes, the constitutional divide between the yes and no camps was as large as 44 percentage points. Credit Maurizio Brambatti/European Pressphoto Agency

A breakdown of returns shows that opposition to the constitutional changes was widespread, though more pronounced in the south.

Only three regions backed the changes: the historically leftist areas of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna in central Italy, and Trentino-Alto Adige in the far north.

In the economically struggling Sicily and Sardinia, which voted against the changes, the divide between the camps was as large as 44 percentage points. The pattern was similar in areas with high unemployment and social problems.

“The country isn’t growing, and voters blamed their personal condition on the government,” said Stefano Folli, a commentator for La Repubblica.

The results also reflected a generational divide. According to a survey reported by the news channel Sky TG24, young voters rejected the proposed changes, while more than half of those over 55 supported them. — GAIA PIANIGIANI

The loser is clear. The winner? Less so.

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Matteo Renzi at the Palazzo Chigi in Rome in June. Credit Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In analyzing the results, Italian pundits did not always agree, except on one point: the severe consequences for Mr. Renzi.

“Does Renzi represent the country from a political, cultural point of view? Yesterday’s vote is a clear rejection of Renzi’s economic policies and of how he envisioned the country,” the political commentator Mario Sechi said. Mr. Renzi “doesn’t represent the zeitgeist of the nation, which did not follow him,” he added.

For Mr. Sechi, the Five Star Movement is the clear victor, even if the “no” campaign brought together divergent political forces.

Sergio Fabbrini, director of the Luiss School of Government in Rome, said the outcome was less clear. Rejection of the constitutional changes was actually a reaction to Mr. Renzi’s “reformist program that in some way threatened a big part of the social political equilibrium,” he said.

The nearly 60 percent of the population that voted against him is “highly divided, with nothing in common, and no leader,” Mr. Fabbrini said. What joins them is a conservative, anti-European outlook. “Within that, you have the most extreme left and right.”

The person to watch in the short term is Mr. Mattarella, the president. “This is the first real test of the president of the Republic, who has kept mostly in the background,” said Antonio Polito, deputy director of the Milan-based daily Corriere della Sera. — ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

A muted reaction from the markets, but ailing banks remain a concern

The euro recovered from early losses, and European stocks edged up. It was a muted reaction, in part because a vote against the constitutional changes had been expected, giving investors time to adjust their portfolios. Also, political instability in Rome is not unusual.

But analysts said Italy was not in the clear, and there is potential for market turmoil in the case of government paralysis and of delays to plans to fix Italy’s ailing banks.

The euro first fell as much as 1.5 percent against the dollar in Asian trading after the vote, but recovered by the morning in Europe, and it even gained ground compared with last week. Major European stock markets were all slightly higher. — JACK EWING

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