Meloni v the judges: high stakes for Italian PM in vote on judiciary overhaul National referendum is being seen as a de facto confidence vote on the government – and the polls are neck and neck.

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – MARCH 19: Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni attends a press conference at the end of the European Council summit on March 19, 2026 in Brussels, Belgium. European Union leaders were meeting to discuss the military escalation in the Middle East and its consequences for EU energy prices and energy security, among other topics. (Photo by Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images)

In the run-up to a referendum in Italy on a government quest to overhaul the judiciary, a campaign flyer circulated online quoting Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister, taking aim at judges and feminists. “Judges block the deportations of rapists. Where are the feminists? Vote yes – there will not be another opportunity,” it read.
The flyer, posted on the Facebook page of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist roots, was subsequently removed. But its tone has defined a campaign dominated by inflammatory rhetoric rather than meaningful debate.

At a demonstration against the proposals, Chiara Antonini, from Rome, said: “It is shameful of Meloni to use such threatening language and to intervene on sensitive issues such as the protection of women, especially given the hypocrisy after the government backtracked on a law that would have defined sex without consent as rape. The government just seems to have it in for the judiciary.”

After more than three years in power, Meloni is leading one of the most stable governments in the history of the Italian republic and burnishing her image abroad. Now she is putting that hard-won credibility to the test with this high-stakes referendum on Sunday and Monday.

Italy’s electorate will vote yes or no to approving amendments to the country’s post-fascism constitution that would shake up the organisation of the justice system. But what is in essence a ballot on a technical and complex change has morphed into a de facto confidence vote on Meloni’s government before a general election in 2027.

Mattia Diletti, a politics professor at Sapienza University in Rome, said: “It has become a political referendum and is a power issue for her. It is essentially a choice between Giorgia Meloni or the judges.”A victory for the yes campaign would usher in changes to how judges and prosecutors are recruited and governed, including separating their career paths, establishing two governing councils selected by lottery and creating a court to handle disciplinary matters.