Early on Sunday March 4th, many in Brussels, Paris and Berlin breathed sighs of relief as it was revealed that Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) members voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats in government. In doing so, they cleared the way for Merkel’s fourth term as German Chancellor, as well as broad alignment with French President Emmanuel Macron’s ambitious plans for deeper European integration.

That same evening, polls closed in Italy after its day-long parliamentary election. Unlike that morning’s news coming from Germany however, a majority of Italians voted for eurosceptic parties. Not only does this result present an enormous barrier to Macron’s plans, but it might just kill the European project altogether.

Indeed, many in Brussels had been hoping for a better showing from former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative Forza Italia party. The expectation was that a centre-right alliance led by this party would have softened their more aggressively eurosceptic junior partners, the League. Berlusconi (who is currently barred from holding office) even announced that Antonio Tajani—currently president of the European Parliament—would become Italy’s next prime minister if his alliance obtained enough seats. The EU could have worked with such a scenario.

Instead, the League surpassed Forza Italia as the alliance’s largest party, cutting short any hopes of a pro-EU government in disguise. Even the prospect of a German-style “grand coalition” between Forza Italia and the centre-left Democratic Party (currently in power) looks implausible, as their combined share of votes falls well below 40%.

The exact government the March 4th election will produce (if any) is unclear. What is clear, however, is that Italians overwhelmingly rejected the pro-EU centre-left and centre-right parties that have taken turns governing Italy for decades. In no other country has this yet happened.

Even in France, where traditional governing parties have all but collapsed, Macron’s ruling En Marche! movement is more a consolidation of the pro-EU status quo than a clean break from the past. Different faces, same policies.

Italy, however, now looks like the most fertile soil since the UK for a Brexit-style referendum either on EU membership, or on the single currency (which is partly to blame for the Mediterranean country’s economic woes). As such, the EU, French and German governments must tread lightly with proposed reforms. Any further consolidation of power in Brussels will be viewed with suspicion in Rome, where many are fed up with EU policies.

In any case, eurosceptics should keep a close eye on Italy as it looks for its next government. The election has not only steamrolled the country’s traditional political elite, but may yet kill the European project.