To be fair, the referendums for Nuclear were so poorly timed. Just after Chernobyl and Fukushima.
I don't know if this was a deliberate choice of the governments leading the country those years (the tinfoil hat in me can see big oil pushing for those referendums at those particular times) or pure bad luck. Anyway, public opinion was highly biased which led to "No" winning with fair margins. With that said, I believe NIMBY is a contributing factor and not the whole explanation.
It wasn’t a government initiative. In Italy, citizens can request (500k signatures needed) a referendum to abrogate a law. This is what happened in this case, the law being the one that allowed nuclear reactors.
I don't know if this was a deliberate choice of the governments leading the country those years (the tinfoil hat in me can see big oil pushing for those referendums at those particular times) or pure bad luck. Anyway, public opinion was highly biased which led to "No" winning with fair margins. With that said, I believe NIMBY is a contributing factor and not the whole explanation.