Low turnout thwarts Italian referendums, deals blow to opposition
Secretary of the Italian Democratic Party (PD) Elly Schlein votes during a referendum on employment and Italian citizenship at a polling station in Rome, Italy, June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Matteo Minnella
A person holds ballot papers during a referendum on employment and Italian citizenship at a polling station in Rome, Italy, June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Matteo Minnella
Five Stars Movement leader Giuseppe Conte stands at a polling station, during a referendum on employment and Italian citizenship at a polling station in Rome, Italy, June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Matteo Minnella
People prepare to vote during a referendum on employment and Italian citizenship at a polling station in Rome, Italy, June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Matteo Minnella
A person votes during a referendum on employment and Italian citizenship at a polling station in Rome, Italy, June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Matteo Minnella
ROME - Low voter turnout on Monday sank Italian opposition referendum proposals to ease citizenship laws and tighten job protection rules, with senior figures in the coalition of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni saying the outcome boosted the government.
Near-final data from polling stations in Italy showed only around 30% of eligible voters had cast their ballots at the end of two days of voting, far short of the 50% plus one of the electorate needed to make the vote legally binding.
The outcome - which will be final once votes from Italians living abroad are counted - is a blow for the coalition of centre-left opposition parties, civil society groups and the CGIL trade union behind the referendum questions, and a win for Meloni who strongly opposed them.
"The opposition wanted to turn the referendum into a vote on the Meloni government. The response is very clear: the government emerges from this stronger and the left is weaker," said Giovanbattista Fazzolari, a cabinet undersecretary and a close aide to Meloni.
Meloni and her right-wing allies encouraged their supporters to boycott the vote. The prime minister visited a polling station in Rome on Sunday but opted not to cast a vote.
Opposition forces had hoped that latching on to the issues of labour rights and Italy's demographic woes could help them challenge Meloni, something they have struggled to do since she came to power in 2022.
"Our goal was to reach a quorum, it is clear that we did not reach it. Today is not a day of victory," said CGIL union leader Maurizio Landini, who added millions of Italians went to vote and that was "a starting number" to keep fighting for change.
CITIZENSHIP ISSUE PROVES DIVISIVE
One of the five referendums was about reducing the period of residence required to apply for Italian citizenship by naturalisation to five years from 10 years, which according to organisers would have affected about 2.5 million people.
In a country suffering a sharp decline in the birth rate, some economists believe attracting more foreigners is vital to boosting an anaemic economy, while rights groups campaigned for a "Yes" vote to promote the integration of migrant workers.
According to initial figures around 35% of voters were against easing the citizenship requirements, indicating the "No" vote could be much higher than in the other questions where the "Yes" looked poised for a very strong majority.
The other four referendum questions concerned a reversal of labour market liberalisations introduced a decade ago, and a broadening of liability rules on accidents at work for companies relying on contractors and subcontractors. REUTERS
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
30 minutes ago
- Straits Times
IAEA chief relays Iran warning against Israeli strikes on nuclear facilities
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi holds a news conference after the first day of the agency's quarterly Board of Governors meeting at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 9, 2025. REUTERS/Lisa Leutner CAIRO - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said Iranians warned him that an Israel strike on the country's nuclear facilities could cause Iran to be more determined about developing a nuclear weapon, according to an interview broadcast and published on Monday. 'A strike could potentially have an amalgamating effect, solidifying Iran's determination – I will say it plainly – to pursue a nuclear weapon or withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,' Grossi said in the interview, published on the Jerusalem Post website and broadcast on i24 TV on Monday. Grossi, however, doubted that Israel would strike Tehran's nuclear facilities, the Jerusalem Post reported. The Iranian nuclear program "runs wide and deep," Grossi told the Jerusalem Post. "Disrupting them would require overwhelming and devastating force." Tehran and Washington have recently engaged in Oman-mediated nuclear talks. Iran is set to hand a counter-proposal for a nuclear deal to the United States via Oman, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday, in response to a U.S. offer that Tehran deems "unacceptable". Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump said he had warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to take actions that could disrupt nuclear talks with Iran. "I told him this would be inappropriate to do right now because we're very close to a solution now," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "That could change at any moment." Trump and Netanyahu are expected to speak over the phone on Monday. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Paraguay president's X account likely hacked in Bitcoin scheme
Paraguay's President Santiago Pena speaks during an interview with Reuters, in Asuncion, Paraguay August 21, 2024. REUTERS/Cesar Olmedo/File Photo ASUNCION - Paraguay's government on Monday said that President Santiago Pena's X account had likely been hacked after the leader appeared to promote trading of cryptocurrency Bitcoin. "The president's official X account has presented irregular activity which suggests possible unauthorized entry," the government said in a statement. A post on Pena's account in English, with a Spanish-language statement purporting to be from the government, had declared that the Latin American country had made Bitcoin legal tender and that it would roll out a $5 million Bitcoin-backed reserve fund. The government asked citizens to ignore posts from the account until official confirmation was made available. Paraguay's national cybersecurity team was working with X to investigate the situation, the government added. X did not immediately respond to a request for comment. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Explainer-What is the High Seas Treaty to protect world oceans?
General view of the opening of the third UN Ocean Conference Monday, June 9, 2025 in Nice, France. Laurent Cipriani/Pool via REUTERS LONDON - While many countries have agreed to take steps to protect the vast, ungoverned swathes of the world's oceans, they have yet to see their High Seas Treaty go into effect. This week's U.N. Oceans Conference in the French city of Nice hopes to change that. WHAT IS THE HIGH SEAS TREATY? The treaty, signed in 2023, provides a legal framework for creating marine protected areas on the "high seas", or the ocean areas that lie beyond any national jurisdiction. Currently, less than 3% of the oceans are under some form of protection, although altogether the world's oceans cover two-thirds of the planet. The treaty contains 75 points covering areas such as protecting, caring for and ensuring responsible use of marine resources, and includes a provision for requiring environmental impact assessments of any economic activities in international waters. The treaty also aims to ensure that all countries have fair and equitable access to the ocean's resources. While it is widely referred to as the High Seas Treaty, officially it is called the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty. As of Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said 50 countries had ratified the treaty, with 60 needed for it to go into effect. Separate to the High Seas Treaty, countries agreed under a 2022 U.N. biodiversity pact to put 30% of their territorial waters under conservation. WHY DO WE NEED AN OCEAN TREATY? Oceans support coastal economies and livelihoods through tourism, fishing, shipping, mining, offshore energy and more. Oceans also absorb about a third of the world's carbon dioxide, or CO2 - the primary gas driving climate change - while ocean-swimming phytoplankton provide about half of the world's oxygen. But marine life is now struggling, and human industry and development are almost entirely to blame. More than 1,500 ocean plants and animals are now at risk of extinction, and that number is expected to rise amid ongoing pollution, overfishing, ocean warming and acidification, according to scientists at the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Additionally, new threats to ocean organisms and ecosystems could emerge in coming years in the form of deep-sea mining for rare-earth minerals. In Nice, Macron is expected to urge countries to support postponing sea-bed exploration while researchers work to understand deep sea ecosystems. Scientists are also concerned about the possibility that governments could look to modify ocean chemistry to boost its capacity for absorbing CO2 - a scenario that researchers say could help to limit global warming but could also have unintended consequences. WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS FOR THE TREATY? Macron's news on Monday of 50 governments having ratified the treaty means it is still short by 10 signatures. The treaty will enter into force 120 days after 60 countries have ratified it. Work then begins on setting up institutions and committees to implement the treaty, while its signatories expect to hold a first conference within a year. Despite its involvement in the original treaty negotiations, the United States under current President Donald Trump is not expected to ratify the treaty. WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING AT THE U.N. OCEANS CONFERENCE? Macron is co-hosting this third U.N. Oceans conference with Costa Rica, and with at least 55 heads of state, business leaders and civil society groups expected to attend the five-day event. Aside from discussions to advance the treaty, delegates are also expected this week to discuss overfishing, water pollution and other threats to marine life. They'll also be looking for fresh ideas on how to pay for it all - with ocean-linked financing lagging far behind other sustainable investment areas. For the five years spanning 2015-2019, ocean-related spending totalled $10 billion. By comparison, the U.N. estimates that every year at least $175 billion is needed for marine protection. The last U.N. oceans summit was held in Lisbon and co-hosted by Kenya in 2022. The next, co-hosted by Chile and Korea, is set for 2028. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
