Prime minister is scrambling to clean up her government after youth vote powered a damaging referendum defeat
F
ilippo Michelini was having a drink at San Calisto, a popular bar in Rome’s Trastevere neighbourhood on Wednesday night. As he chatted to his friends, Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government was reeling from a failed referendum, and her beleaguered tourism minister, Daniela Santanchè, had just resigned.
Michelini, a 29-year-old computer scientist who lives in Brussels, was spending a few days in the Italian capital after returning home last weekend to cast his ballot in the plebiscite on judicial changes.
Ordinarily, such a topic might not be expected to appeal to many young people, often dismissed as politically apathetic. Yet younger Italians turned out in droves, with the largest share of the vote against the overhauls – 68.4% – coming from 18- to 29-year-olds, according to figures from Cise, a centre for electoral studies at Luiss University in Rome.
