Two senior figures in Meloni’s justice ministry who are under criminal investigation resigned Tuesday, with the PM pushing for a cabinet minister to stand down as well.
ROME — Giorgia Meloni is reshuffling her government following a bruising defeat in a referendum on Monday that has weakened her authority and emboldened the opposition.
Voters convincingly rejected Meloni’s flagship justice reform in a high-stakes vote widely seen as a test of her leadership, turning what the government had framed as a technical overhaul into a broader political rebuke.
The result has rattled the government and triggered an immediate political fallout.
Two senior figures at the justice ministry resigned on Tuesday after the collapse of the reform, with a third, a cabinet minister facing fraud charges, expected to follow.
The opposition accused Meloni of finding “easy scapegoats” for her own mistakes.
All three figures have been targets of investigations by prosecutors, creating damaging optics for a government that has sought to curb the judiciary. Critics argued that the failed referendum’s real aim was to shield politicians from investigations.
Justice Undersecretary Andrea Delmastro Delle Vedove, a long-standing Meloni ally, was linked last week to a Rome mafia clan after he was found to have invested in a steak restaurant with the daughter of a convicted mafia frontman.
Delmastro Delle Vedove denied wrongdoing and said he had corrected his mistake “as soon as he found out,” but admitted he “should have been more prudent.”
“I have always fought crime, and had concrete and important results … But I take responsibility [for the mistake] in the interest of the nation and moreover, because of the affection I have for the government and the prime minister,” he said in a statement released Tuesday announcing his resignation.
Delmastro Delle Vedove had also received a criminal conviction earlier in the legislature after leaking official secrets.
Justice Ministry chief of staff and former MP Giusi Bartolozzi is facing criminal charges over an alleged cover-up involving a Libyan warlord who was arrested last year on an International Criminal Court warrant and then flown out of Rome. During the campaign she called prosecutors “an execution squad,” reinforcing accusations that the government viewed investigations as political interference. Bartolozzi didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meloni also signaled she had lost confidence in Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè, who has been ordered to stand trial over alleged fraud linked to Covid-19 aid, and said in a statement that she “hoped” Santanchè would choose to resign. Santanchè didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, who authored the reform, took responsibility for the defeat but said on Tuesday he would not step down and instead would “return to his study and hobbies” after national elections expected next year.
Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein told the La7 TV channel that those who resigned were “easy scapegoats of a defeat that is all Giorgia Meloni’s.”
Carlo Calenda, leader of the centrist Azione party, said the resignations were “necessary, fitting and late.”
Senator Raffaella Paita of the centrist Italia Viva party called the resignations “a political earthquake in the government” and urged Meloni to explain herself in parliament. “The prime minister cannot have half the government resign to avoid resigning herself.”