Justice

Career separation, going to referendum: how it works and when it will be

The oppositions announce the use of consultation by collecting signatures of their MPs (they need those of either 80 MPs out of the total 400, or 41 senators out of 205). Vote in the spring

by Rome Editorial Staff

19 September 2025

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Rissa sfiorata in Aula dopo l'approvazione della separazione delle carriere

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Key points

Times
Without quorum
Opposition announcement, majority intentions
Previous
Other types of referendum

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The Chamber of Deputies approved on Thursday 18 September in second reading the constitutional reform introducing the separation of the careers of magistrates. This is the penultimate step before the final approval of the reform by Parliament, which in fact sanctions the certainty of a confirmatory referendum. In fact, in Montecitorio the go-ahead did not reach the two-thirds quorum that would have prevented recourse to the referendum by the oppositions. The Article 138 of the Constitution, which regulates changes to the fundamental charter, states that if the two-thirds quorum is not reached in both chambers at second reading, "one fifth of the members of a chamber or five hundred thousand voters or five regional councils" may request a referendum within three months.

The Times

After the final 'yes' of the reform in the Senate (spoken of on 22-23 October), there will be three months to apply for the referendum, which will then take place in the spring.

Without quorum

The confirmatory referendum for constitutional laws, as mentioned, is governed by Article 138 of the Constitution. It serves to submit the reform voted on by parliament to the citizens but can only be requested if the yes votes of the Chamber and Senate do not exceed two-thirds of the assembly. There are three ways provided for by the Constitution to set the referendum machine in motion: 5 thousand voters, 5 regional councils or one fifth of the members of one of the chambers can request the referendum.

The opposition's announcement, the majority's intentions

The oppositions have already announced that they will resort to the referendum by collecting the signatures of their MPs (they need those of either 80 MPs out of the total 400, or 41 senators out of 205). It is not excluded that the majority will also do the same to show that they are not afraid of the citizens' verdict. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that Forza Italia, the party of which he is secretary, is 'ready to launch committees for the yes vote'.

Previous ones

What is looming is the fifth referendum on constitutional reforms.

The first is that of 7 October 2001, when the referendum was held to confirm or not the reform of Title V of the Charter, approved by the Union majority during the years of the Prodi, D'Alema and Amato governments: it passed with 64.2% of votes in favour, although the turnout stopped at just over 34%.

The second case of the confirmatory referendum, 25-26 June 2006, concerned the constitutional reform passed by the Berlusconi government (inspired by Bossi's Lega and with Calderoli as Minister of Reforms): the so-called devolution was rejected by 61%, while the voter turnout was 52%.

4 December 2016 was the third time for the constitutional referendum in republican history: the majority of voters rejected the Renzi-Boschi reform constitutional bill, which was definitively approved by the Chamber of Deputies in April 2016 and aimed, among other things, to overcome perfect bicameralism at the expense of the Senate. The no vote was 59.11%, against 40.89% yes. Voters, however, were record, almost 69%. The first political consequence was the resignation of the Renzi government.

The case of the referendum of 20 September 2020 on the cut of MPs, which was approved by a bipartisan vote, was different. Only a small group of senators from various parties collected the necessary signatures, but the ballot boxes confirmed the reform: 51.12% participated, 69.96% were yes, and 30.04% were no.

The other types of referendum

The Constitution provides for abrogative referendums (67 have been held in Italy since 1948) and non-abrogative referendums. Among the non-revocable referendums, the Charter distinguishes institutional referendums (only the one of 2 June 1946 between the monarchy and the Republic), policy referendums (only the one on the granting of the constituent mandate to the European Parliament on 18 June 1989) and constitutional referendums.