Italian president pushes for new voting law before election

“It doesn’t suggest that the European project is functioning well”.

Speaking at a press conference on December 5, 2016, Renzi also called the vote a great celebration of democracy and reassured his fellow reform supporters by taking responsibility for the defeat.

“This is a crisis of government, not a crisis of state, and it’s not the end of the West”. This week, it was the “no” vote in Italy’s constitutional referendum.

The votes captured how polarized Europeans are by numerous same issues that propelled Trump to victory, including immigration, trade and economic malaise.

The movement campaigned hard against the reforms and has been against Renzi since he took office.

However German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that Germany was watching the developments in Italy “with concern”.

He had staked his political future on the reform, which was aimed at weakening the powers of the upper house to help streamline Italy’s notoriously lengthy legislative process.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella had asked Renzi to stay on until the crucial budget law clears before he begins consultations with political leaders on forming a government that can last until new elections are held.

The party is expected to have a leadership meeting in the coming days to determine the way forward.

Italian banks were also hit with UniCredit, the nation’s only globally systemically important lender, finishing 3.3 per cent lower.

“But after seeing that rally yesterday and given that Renzi seems likely to stay on, at least for this week, there may be a lack of reasons to sell the euro in the near term”, Yamamoto said.

It was a resounding victory for the No camp, a medley of populist parties headed by the Five Star Movement, which capitalised on Mr Renzi’s declining popularity, years of economic stagnation, and the problems caused by tens of thousands of migrants arriving in Italy from Africa. “That is the only way we can deal with globalization”.

But there is no guarantee that Five Star would win such a vote, since recent polls show only 15 per cent of Italians support a euro exit.

Earlier there was a rare moment of relief for Europe’s beleaguered political mainstream as the challenge of the far-right Freedom Party for the Austrian presidency ended in failure.

The law was changed to the so-called “Italicum” system previous year to give the leading party a parliamentary majority through bonus seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies.

The bank is trying to raise new capital to the tune of €5bn (£4.2bn; $5.3bn). It is to be hoped it will rise to them and emerge from next year’s elections more stable and secure.

Sunday’s election, in fact, was a rerun of one in May in which Hofer lost by 31,000 votes, a result he successfully contested. “You can see that market reaction so far has been moderate”, he said.

Matteo Salvini, 43, heads up the anti-immigrant Northern League party and has tried – but largely failed – to extend its reach beyond the rich north into the poorer southern heartlands by playing the anti-euro card and railing against migrants. He wants a party congress, but not necessarily early elections.

Even so, a vote for Van der Bellen didn’t represent a vote for the status quo. “The idea of an Austrian Freedom Party candidate getting so close to leading the country was pretty much unfathomable a few years ago. The extreme right is not irresistible”.