{"id":273977,"date":"2016-12-04T08:05:06","date_gmt":"2016-12-04T08:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=273977"},"modified":"2016-12-04T08:05:06","modified_gmt":"2016-12-04T08:05:06","slug":"italians-vote-on-future-of-pm-renzi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=273977","title":{"rendered":"Italians vote on future of PM Renzi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italians are voting in a referendum which is being closely watched for further signs of anti-establishment sentiment in Europe.<\/p>\n

The vote, called by centre-left Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, is formally on plans to streamline parliament but is expected to be used by many as a chance to register discontent.<\/p>\n

Populist parties have campaigned for a No vote. Mr Renzi has said he will resign if he loses.<\/p>\n

Opinion polls suggest he faces defeat.<\/p>\n

Voting began on Sunday at 07:00 (06:00 GMT) and ends at 23:00, with results expected early on Monday.<\/p>\n

What’s being decided?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In brief: the reforms include reducing the power of the senate. Its members would be cut from 315 to 100, with most drawn from mayors and regional representatives.<\/p>\n

Mr Renzi says the reforms would speed up the cumbersome law-making process in Italy, which has had 60 governments since 1948.<\/p>\n

Opponents say the proposals would concentrate too much power in the prime minister’s hands.<\/p>\n

Some 50 million Italians have the right to vote in the referendum – many voters are fed up with years of economic stagnation.<\/p>\n

An opinion poll in November gave the No vote a lead of at least five percentage points. But many Italians are thought to be still undecided.<\/p>\n

(The full details of what is on the table are further down in this article).<\/p>\n

What would a No vote mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The No campaign in Italy has been spearheaded by the the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, led by Beppe Grillo. It wants a referendum on whether Italy should keep the euro.<\/p>\n

The Five Star Movement and the anti-immigrant Northern League would receive a boost from the prime minister’s defeat.<\/p>\n

If Italy votes No, it would follow the UK’s vote in June to leave the European Union, as well as the rise of the anti-immigrant Front National in France and populist parties elsewhere (along with Donald Trump’s unexpected win in the US presidential election).<\/p>\n

But the possibility of Mr Renzi, 41, falling from power has reignited concerns about financial stability in the eurozone’s third largest economy.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Leader
A\u00a0Beppe Grillo and his Five Star Movement could reap the rewards of a No<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

If Mr Renzi does lose, it is still not entirely certain that he will be out of power.<\/p>\n

President Sergio Mattarella could ask him to form a new government or appoint a technocratic prime minister to serve until elections due in 2018.<\/p>\n

What Renzi wants to do:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Reduce the power of the second chamber of parliament, the Senate, which is currently equal to the Chamber of Deputies<\/li>\n
  • Cut the number of Senators from 315 to 100 and strip the Senate of the right to hold votes of no confidence in the government<\/li>\n
  • End elections to Senate and fill it with 21 regional mayors, 74 regional council heads and five other members selected by the president<\/li>\n
  • Reformists say this would cut the cost of politics by \u20ac500m (\u00a3430m; $530m) a year and speed up lawmaking by ending decades of parliamentary ping pong<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    –<\/p>\n

    Source: BBC<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Italians are voting in a referendum which is being closely watched for further signs of anti-establishment sentiment in Europe. The vote, called by centre-left Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, is formally on plans to streamline parliament but is expected to be used by many as a chance to register discontent. Populist parties have campaigned for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":273980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[3,14127],"class_list":["post-273977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-ghana-news","tag-referendum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=273977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=273977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=273977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=273977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}