WASHINGTON (Sputnik) —On Sunday, Italian voters rejected in a public referendum a constitutional reform plan proposed by Renzi. The referendum was largely viewed as a vote on Renzi’s leadership.
"I think the referendum was also part of this kind of this populist moment, another expression of anger, and the strategic error by former Prime Minister Renzi was to make it about him," Hunt said on Friday. "And so it was a vote on him, which allowed many people to express their political frustrations around a perfectly normal constitutional reform."
On Wednesday, Renzi submitted his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella, who accepted it, but asked Renzi to postpone his resignation until the law on the 2017 state budget is adopted.
The Italian Senate approved the budget shortly afterward, paving the way for Renzi to step down.
