The Italian government tried everything possible to delay, compromise and negate the possibility of Italian people expressing dissent. It wasted €300m (£265m) preventing a high turnout at the ballot for a referendum on three crucial issues. It even passed a decree in the hope of nullifying one of the referendum's counts. In addition, it attempted to prevent adequate television coverage of the ballot. Yet the referendum held on 12-13 June succeeded. The result constitutes another huge setback for Silvio Berlusconi's government.

Italians were called to the ballot box to give their verdict on three crucial government policies: first they had the opportunity to repeal the famous "legitimate impediment" – the law that gave Berlusconi automatic immunity from trial proceedings (already partially revoked by the constitutional court). Second, they had the chance to stop another controversial reform brought in by Berlusconi's government: water privatisation. Finally, they were able to vote against Berlusconi's energy policy, which bucks the current European trend in proposing the construction of nuclear plants in high-risk seismic Italy.

And Italians have spoken. They said no to the current government's most controversial policies. They said no to an undemocratic law that placed the prime minister above the law and prevented him from ever coming to trial. They said no to water privatisation and, again, no to nuclear energy.

The result is exceptional for various reasons. It comes after the recent defeat for the ruling party at the May local elections, where even Milan, Berlusconi's home city – ousted his party's candidate for mayor. Not only did Berlusconi's coalition lose control of important cities such as Milan, Naples, Trieste, Cagliari and Novara, but Berlusconi's loyal ally, the Northern League, also suffered election losses in its own northern heartland. The referendum result will further damage the weakened alliance between Berlusconi's party and the Northern League. The latter has already started detaching itself from Berlusconi's policies on various issues, from the mission in Libya to fiscal reform. Recent weeks have also seen the ruling coalition suffer defeats in parliament. This shows clear signs of turmoil within the coalition that the referendum result can only exacerbate.

Yet the result is exceptional for other reasons. First and foremost because it defeated the government machine that tried every measure possible to scupper its success.

In fact, Berlusconi tried to make it difficult for the vote to reach the target it needed – according to article 75 of the constitution, this needs to be more than 50% – or precisely 25,209,345 million votes. In gloomy times for the Italian economy, Berlusconi's government wasted €300m on another ballot immediately after the local elections instead of combining the two. Furthermore, once the date of the ballot was set, the government tried to invalidate one of the referendum's four counts: the so-called omnibus decree placed a last-minute moratorium on the government policy that sought to establish nuclear plants in a notoriously anti-nuclear country. As Berlusconi himself has since explained, the construction of nuclear plants is still a priority for the government. In the words of Berlusconi, the omnibus decree was a "wise decision" to prevent "people voting to ban nuclear plants in Italy and therefore thwarting the government's nuclear agenda for many years to come". Yet, the highest court in Italy subsequently decided that the referendum on nuclear plants should go ahead despite the changes proposed by the decree.

Furthermore, the government played its final card in making an appeal to the constitutional court just a few days before the consultation. On 7 June, the constitutional court once again reaffirmed the legitimacy of the referendum in its new post-Omnibus decree framework. If this verdict is a victory for the Italian people, there are still about 3 million Italians who risk seeing their votes nullified by the government's strategies. Italians living abroad have been asked to vote on a count that has not been updated post-omnibus decree, precisely because of the government's subsequent delaying tactics. The decision on the validity of the vote abroad will come on Thursday. Still, the strong turnout at the referendum is a great consolation as the 50% target has been achieved at any rate.

In addition, the government propaganda machine has been widely employed to compromise the referendum. RAI – supposedly the Italian BBC – failed to inform the Italian public about the referendum. So deficient has been its referendum coverage that Agcom – the Italian Ofcom – repeatedly called for RAI to increase its coverage in order to better inform the public about the consultation. On the positive side, social media has, for the first time, been used to update people on the vote. Facebook, Twitter and blogs have been used to reach Italian people outside the zone of Berlusconi's televisual control.

Yet, technology alone cannot determine revolutions. Berlusconi is likely to maintain his grip on Italy until a vote of no confidence by parliament forces him out. Nonetheless, Italians have spoken and have clearly said no. The effects on the ruling coalition should manifest themselves soon.