Justice referendum, what polls say about Italians' attitudes

If a vote were taken today for the constitutional referendum on justice reform, the yes votes would prevail, according to the latest polls carried out. According to the most recent one, carried out by Izi, a company for economic and political analysis and evaluation, the majority of voters (57.8%) admit they do not know what the law is about, while 70.9% of those who are more informed are in favour of it and 21.9% against. Government voters are plebiscite in their response, 99% want the reform of the judiciary, while opposition voters reject it (81.6% Pd and Avs voters and 79.4% M5S say no).

According to another poll carried out a couple of weeks before the final go-ahead of the reform by the Noto Institute for the television programme 'Porta a Porta', the victory of the 'yes' camp is less marked. 57% of Italians would confirm the reform. 22% would be against it, the remaining 21% would be undecided ('I don't know'). As for participation, 60% of Italians say they will go to the polls, while 23% will not. There is also a 17% undecided.

There are five or six months to go until the referendum ("to be held between March and April 2026," said Guardasigilli Carlo Nordio) in which Italians will decide whether to approve the justice reform, which has just been given the final green light by Parliament. In the meantime, a series of stages precede the citizens' call to the polls. The so-called 'constitutional' referendum, which differs from the 'abrogative' referendum, is first and foremost a consultation in which consent is given or withheld to operations - already approved by Parliament - to revise, supplement or amend the Constitution. Since it is a law of constitutional rank, in order to avoid the referendum and be directly approved in P

In the meantime, the majority MPs have already taken action for the referendum request, and the collection of signatures will start next week: 80 signatures are needed for MPs in total, 41 for the Senate. The central referendum office at the Supreme Court will then verify the regularity and number of signatures. The Constitutional Court will then check whether the law can be subject to a referendum. The wording of the question, the text of which will be in substance that of the law being consulted, must be established by the Constitutional Court. Constitutional magistrates have the task of assessing a question according to the parameters of clarity, homogeneity and comprehensibility for voters.

With the question, the voter will be asked whether he intends to confirm or reject the constitutional law submitted to a referendum, through the only two possible options: 'Yes' or 'No'. After passing this set of conditions, it will finally be up to the President of the Republic to call the referendum. At the ballot box, voters will decide whether or not to confirm the reform and, unlike in the 'abrogative' referendum, no participation quorum will be needed. The law will be deemed approved if it receives a majority of validly cast votes.