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.

It also mirrors the “labour reforms” imposed undemocratically by Francois Hollande’s supposed Socialist Party government next door in France.

Renzi’s Jobs Act was opposed by trade unions and welcomed by bosses because it made sacking workers without cause easier and offered subsidies to companies taking on staff.

Massive trade union demonstrations, including nearly a million in Rome in October 2015, were ignored by the government led by the Democratic Party, which has its roots in the once powerful Italian Communist Party (PCI).

Groups still loyal to PCI principles opposed Renzi’s referendum, with Contropiano, the online newspaper of Rete dei Communisti, reporting demonstrations by the Co-ordination for a Social No.

This ad hoc body grouped the Party of Italian Communists, Rifondazione Comunista, Rete dei Communisti, Eurostop and the trade union centre USB, which is affiliated to the World Federation of Trade Unions.

The militant CGIL trade union federation, Unione Sindicale di Base and the National Association of Italian Partisans (ANPI), founded by partisans in 1944 and still dedicated to the values of the Resistance, took a similar stance. Contropiano’s judgement was that the referendum had preserved the constitution “born of the Resistance.”

Left-wing opposition to the referendum was ignored by a mass media mesmerised by the maverick Five Star Movement (5SM), led by Beppe Grillo, and the far-right Northern League (LN) as though it was their campaigning alone that carried the day.

This assisted the right-wing media to force the Italian referendum campaign through the “populism” prism, following on from Donald Trump’s election as US president and British voters’ decision to leave the EU.

Yet, while areas influenced by the Northern League voted No by 60 per cent, the level of rejection in southern Italy — the main butt of LN abuse — was 70 per cent.

Similarly the picture of “populism” as an expression of conservatism supported by older voters is belied by the fact that young voters plumped by four to one for the No camp.

Young people have borne the brunt in unemployment and despair born of failed economic policies since Italy joined the eurozone, bringing chronic stagnation.

Britain is just one of the EU member countries to have seen a large influx of young Italians seeking a better life.

Despite demands by 5SM for a general election now, President Sergio Mattarella is unlikely to agree to this, preferring to replace Renzi with similar.

But the Italian people, as well as the political Establishment, will be aware that wholehearted backing from EU leaders and much of corporate power could not save Renzi.

Voters are capable of saying No to those in power and finding solutions other than those approved by the elite.