The scale of his defeat should be an eye-opener not only for him but the European Union leaders who encouraged him in his “reform” agenda.

Germany’s austerity-obsessed Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble took time off from bullying Greek voters to instruct Italy that, irrespective of the referendum, it “has to continue the path that Prime Minister Renzi has taken economically and politically.”

That path includes proposals to change the electoral system by handing an overall parliamentary majority to the party winning the largest vote share in a general election and entrenching authority in the hands of the executive by weakening the elected Senate and regional authorities.