ROME—A voter referendum on changes to Italy’s post-war Constitution has turned into a virtual plebiscite on Premier Matteo Renzi’s center-left government. Will Italy become the next Western country to turn on established political leaders? A rundown on what’s at stake in the constitutional referendum:
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NUTS AND BOLTS
Nearly 51 million Italians are eligible to cast ballots, ticking off “Yes” or “No” to whether they approve the proposed reforms hammered out by Parliament. Voting begins at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) and ends at 11 p.m., (2200 GMT). Ballots already cast by Italians living abroad will be counted along with the Election Day tally.
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WHAT WOULD THE REFORMS DO?
The biggest change would be to Italy’s lumbering lawmaking process. The revised Constitution no longer would require both chambers of Parliament to vote on all legislation, including after each time a bill gets amended.
Instead, only the 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies would make most laws. The Senate would shrink from 315 to 100 members. Five would be appointed by Italy’s president and the other 95 drawn from the ranks of Italy’s mayors and regional representatives.
Confidence votes, which determine a ruling government’s survival, also would be the exclusive province of the Chamber.
The other major reform transfers some authority from Italy’s regions to the central government. Currently, jurisdictional disputes end up in Italy’s slow-moving court system.
A recent example of the kind of tug-of-war the change is designed to address: Italy’s Constitutional Court threw out a national law that would have made it easier to fire workers who punch time cards, then effectively don’t go to work. The court said Renzi’s government should have involved the regions in making the change.
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YAYS AND NAYS
Renzi, his center-left allies, and banks and industrialists say the reforms would help modernize Italy. Opponents, including the populist 5-Star Movement, which is now the chief rival of Renzi’s Democrats, contend the reforms would erode democracy by concentrating too much power in the premier’s office.
Others urging voters to reject the amendments are former center-right Premier Silvio Berlusconi, hardliners with Communist roots who are now in Renzi’s Democratic Party, and Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League, which wants regions to have more, not fewer, powers.
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WHAT THE POLLS SAY:
By law, the last opinion polls were published on Nov. 14. The “No” camp was leading, but many voters were undecided.
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BREXIT DEJA VU?
