The point

Referendum: date, committees, risk of appeals and funding. Everything you need to know

Parties like Forza Italia plan a massive poster campaign and funding

by Rome Editorial Staff

10 January 2026

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

The date
Committees
Appeals
Funding

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

During the press conference at the beginning of the year, the referendum on justice was among the central topics addressed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Not only because of the date, but also because of the attacks on the Anm, the protagonist of the campaign for the 'no' to the separation of careers.

There are several aspects related to the reform vote. Aspects that from the coming weeks will be increasingly present in the public debate, such ascommittees, announced appeals and funding.

The date

First of all, the dates of 22 and 23 March 2026 were also confirmed by Meloni (and will be announced by the Council of Ministers on Monday 12 January). 'According to the law,' she said at the conference, 'we must give the date by 17 January.

The rule referred to is Article 15 of Law No 352 of 1970, according to which the referendum must be held within 60 days of the communication of the order of the Central Referendum Office of the Court of Cassation that admitted the referendum requests (on 18 November). The same rule provides that the referendum is to be held on a Sunday between the 50th and 70th day after the decree calling it.

The Committees

Then there are the organisations against the reform, such as the"Comitato Giusto dire no", which commented on Meloni's words in the conference: "We reject the delegitimisation campaign that is being waged against the Comitato Giusto Dire no: what has been written on our posters is the result of what has been stated by the Minister of Justice. We have been hearing for many days that the posters contain lies. Today, Prime Minister Meloni has also joined the chorus'.

On 10 January, on the other hand, the campaign of the 'Civil Society Committee for the No to the Constitutional Referendum' will start, supporting the collection of digital signatures. An initiative with the intervention of CGIL general secretary Maurizio Landini.

Over the past few days, with regard to the ANM's posters, 'yes' supporters have raised their voices in protest, claiming that their claims are false. Criticism came from the Justice Yes committee, from Domenico Caiazza, president of the Si Separa Committee, who spoke of 'fraudulent and shameful' posters, from Prof. Nicolò Zanon, president of the National Yes Reform Committee. The Nordio law does not envisage any subordination of the judges to politics, they emphasised in chorus, and indeed the reform confirms the current article of the Constitution, 104, which provides for the independence of the judiciary.

The appeals

On the 'no' side, the citizens' committee that is collecting signatures for a new referendum has already announced recourse. "If the government wants to disregard a constant practice in republican history," the spokesperson for the committee promoting the collection of popular signatures for the Referendum on Justice, Carlo Guglielmi, told Ansa, "we will invite it to justify itself in all the appropriate venues. In the four previous cases, the decree fixing the Referendum has always been issued at the end of the three months allowed for signature collection'.

'We are respectful towards everyone,' he added, 'but if others become disrespectful towards citizens' participation then we will react. Our task is to ensure that the 280,000 signatures collected so far are not thrown in the bucket. We will do everything the law allows to prevent this. Also appeal the decision to the Constitutional Court? We are ready to do so in all venues. We are ready to do everything that the system of checks and balances provided by the Constitution of the Republic allows us to do.

Funding

In the meantime, Forza Italia is ready to put its face to it and aims at a massive referendum campaign on justice, also in economic terms, and widespread, rooted in the territory. Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani is said to have chaired a meeting with the Forza Italia leadership to take stock of the situation after the Christmas holidays. The meeting would have been mainly of an operational nature, to decide on the referendum strategy with a sort of road map, made up of debates and initiatives, especially local ones. A real general mobilisation, more concentrated in the last 15-20 days, in view of the final rush in March. The organisational machine has started, at least fifty events are planned at the end of the month in all the regions, assures a blue bigwig present at the meeting.

Demonstrating that the party is serious, Fi has reportedly also decided to commit itself with an economic effort of some magnitude. The amount to be invested in the referendum campaign has not been quantified. There are those who claim that for effective 'propaganda' a budget of between 800 thousand and 1 million euro would be needed, but there are those who bet that in the end up to 500-600 thousand euro could be put on the table. At today's meeting, they report, there was talk of precisely how to find the resources to finance the 'yes' vote. The idea would be to use first of all the party's funds, drawing from the treasury of Fi's membership, which closed last December with about 250,000 members, as Tajani has announced several times. An income for the coffers, according to the latest calculations, of more than 2 million euro.