Italians went to the polls Sunday in a constitutional referendum on which reformist Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has staked his future.
Whatever the outcome of a vote being anxiously watched in capitals across Europe and carefully scrutinized on trading floors around the world, it will lead to change.
If the center-left Renzi’s proposals to streamline a 68-year-old parliamentary system are voted down, he has vowed to resign.
That would usher in a period of political uncertainty and potential economic turmoil for the country and its European Union allies.
The most apocalyptic scenarios involve a crisis of investor confidence causing the failure of a rescue scheme for Italy’s most indebted banks, triggering a broader crisis across the eurozone.
Source: AFP
