The prime minister admitted defeat in a high-level vote on the justice reform package but vowed to keep his seat.
Published on 23 March 2026
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has accepted defeat in a referendum on her justice reforms, while also confirming she will not submit her resignation.
“The Italians have decided. And we respect this decision,” he said in a statement accompanying a video on Twitter on Monday, adding that the referendum result was “a lost opportunity to modernize Italy.”
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In the video, he stressed that “this does not change our commitment to work for the well-being of the nation with seriousness and determination and to respect the mandate entrusted to us”.
Meloni’s hard-right government wanted to change Italy’s constitution to separate the roles of judges and prosecutors and reform their oversight body.
He claimed that the plan was necessary to guarantee fairness and improve the functioning of Italy’s crumbling justice system.
But critics have called it a political power grab that fails to address real challenges, from years-long trials to prison overcrowding.
Elie Schlein, leader of the center-left Democratic Party, said before the vote that the proposal was poorly drafted and “undermines the independence of the judiciary”.
fight the judiciary
Meloni and his ministers have repeatedly attacked decisions they claim are too liberal, particularly on the issue of immigration.
His proposed reform 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 was difficult and bitter.
In a public spat last month, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio – who called criticism of judges “petulant litany” – said the reform would correct the “para-mafia apparatus” within the judiciary.
Nordio’s chief of staff Giussi Bartolozzi was also widely criticized when he said during a talk show that the reform would “get rid of” magistrates who acted like “execution squads”.
The most divisive part of the reform involves changes to the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM), an oversight and disciplinary body whose members are elected by their peers and the Parliament.
The reform was supposed to split the CSM into two separate councils, one for judges and one for prosecutors, and create a new 15-member Disciplinary Court.
Members were planned to vote by lot, no longer being voted by their peers, three members of the court would be chosen by the ceremonial President of Italy and three would be chosen from a list of experienced lawyers approved by the Parliament.
The second part of the reform was intended to prevent judges and government prosecutors from switching between the two functions, addressing concerns that overly cozy relations between the two groups harm defendants.
