Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has conceded defeat on a referendum battle to approve constitutional reforms and said he would hand in his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella on Monday, according to dpa. "The 'no' has won," Renzi said at a press conference at his official residence, speaking of a "clear and clear-cut" result. "When you lose, who can't pretend nothing has happened ... the experience of my government ends here," he added. The premier had promised to go if Italians rejected the reforms he had sponsored, and preliminary results indicate that they did so by around 60 per cent to 40 per cent. The referendum was about proposals to concentrate power in the government's hands. Critics saw the reforms as anti-democratic, while supporters claimed they would have made Italy more stable.
