Italian Voters Come Out to Overturn Laws and Deliver a Rebuke to Berlusconi

By RACHEL DONADIO
NYT

ROME — Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suffered a stinging political defeat on Monday when voters overturned laws passed by his government that would have restarted Italy’s nuclear energy program, privatized the water supply and granted him immunity from prosecution.

Analysts said the government was not likely to fall immediately over the results, which came from a popular referendum — the first since 1995 to draw the quorum of 50 percent plus one vote required to overturn the laws.

But just weeks after Mr. Berlusconi’s candidates lost mayoral races in Milan and Naples in elections he had billed as a referendum on his own popularity, Monday’s results pointed to a new reality: the man who once had his finger on Italy’s pulse appeared to be losing touch.

The referendum was “more a question of policies than politics, but there is a political impact, because it means Berlusconi has lost his magic,” said Roberto d’Alimonte, a political science professor at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome.

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