Italianen stemmen in referendum tegen grotere autonomie van regio's (en)

In a two day referendum, Italians rejected proposed constitutional reforms, which among other things included greater autonomy for Italy's regions.

The constitutional reforms were proposed by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi before he was deposed by Romano Prodi in March elections.

The turnout for this referendum was surprisingly high at 53.6%, while the final result showed that 61.7% of those voting were against the reforms and only 38.7% voted in favour.

The rejected reforms would have devolved greater powers to Italy's regions in the areas of health, education and policing, increased the powers of the prime minister at the expense of the president and cut the number of parliamentarians.

The Senate would have been transformed into a federal rather than a national legislative body and the need for both Italian chambers to endorse legislation would have been eliminated.

The centre left argued that the package would have destroyed national unity and cost the nation more than €250 billion to implement.

Mr Prodi's coalition also insisted that Italy's underdeveloped southern regions would have been penalised by any proposed devolution.

This result strengthened Mr Prodi's position as leader of government, after his coalition won the tightest election ever in Italian history. Mr Berlusconi initially contested the results.

But reacting to this latest victory Mr Prodi said, "I never thought of this referendum as a test for our government, unlike the leader of the opposition who claimed that it was."

This was the third win for Mr Prodi in a few months, as the centre-left also won April's regional elections.