Italy holds referendum on citizenship and workers' rights
A non-EU adult resident without marriage or blood ties to Italy must currently live in the country for 10 years before they can apply for citizenship -- a process which can then take years.
The referendum proposal, triggered by a grassroots campaign led by NGOs, would cut this to five years, putting Italy in line with Germany and France.
Campaigners say around 2.5 million people could benefit from the reform, which is being backed by the centre-left Democratic Party.
Meloni, whose far-right Brothers of Italy party has prioritised cutting illegal immigration even while increasing the number of legal work visas for migrants, is strongly against it.
She said Thursday that the current system "is an excellent law, among the most open, in the sense that we have for years been among the European nations that grant the highest number of citizenships each year".
More than 213,500 people acquired Italian citizenship in 2023, double the number in 2020 and one fifth of the European Union total, according to EU statistics.
More than 90 percent were from outside the bloc, mostly from Albania and Morocco, as well as Argentina and Brazil -- two countries with large Italian immigrant communities.
Ministers agreed in March to restrict the rights to citizenship of those with blood ties to Italy from four to two generations.
Meloni and her coalition partners have encouraged voters to boycott the referendum, which will only be valid if 50 percent of eligible voters plus one participate.
Even if it passes, the reform will not affect the migration law many consider the most unfair, that children born in Italy to foreign parents cannot request nationality until they reach 18.
Prominent rapper Ghali, who was born in Milan to Tunisian parents, has been an outspoken advocate changing the law for children, but nevertheless urged fans to back Sunday's vote as a step in the right direction.
"With a 'Yes' we ask that five years of life here are enough, not 10, to be part of this country," he wrote on Instagram.
Interests of workers
Under Italy's constitution, a referendum can be triggered by a petition signed by at least 500,000 voters.
This week's ballot includes one question on citizenship and four others on increasing protections for workers who are dismissed, in precarious situations or involved in workplace accidents.
The changes are being pushed by the left-wing CGIL trade union.
"We want to reverse a culture that has prioritised the interests of business over those of workers," CGIL general secretary Maurizio Landini told AFP.
The Democratic Party is also backing the proposals -- even if it introduced some of the laws the CGIL wants to repeal while in office in the past.
The proposals are notably aimed at measures of the so-called Jobs Act, passed a decade ago by the government of the Democratic Party prime minister, Matteo Renzi, in order to liberalise the labour market.
Supporters say the act boosted employment but detractors say it made work more precarious.
Under new leadership, the Democratic Party -- which is polling at around 23 percent, behind Meloni's Brothers of Italy at about 30 percent, according to an SWG survey this week -- is seeking to woo working-class voters by backing the referendum reform.
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Local Italy
6 hours ago
- Local Italy
Italy's opposition warns of 'democratic crisis' after low referendum turnout
The citizenship referendum, along with four others relating to workers' rights held over June 8th and 9th, drew just over 30 percent of the electorate – far lower than the threshold of more than 50 percent required for their results to be valid. Maurizio Landini, leader of Italian trade union CGIL which had promoted the referendums, slammed the low turnout as a sign of a "clear democratic crisis" in Italy. But the result was celebrated as a victory by Italy's hard-right coalition government, which strongly opposed the proposed reforms and had publicly called on its supporters to boycott the vote. "YOU LOST" Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party posted to Facebook shortly after the results were announced on Monday afternoon, with the letters superimposed over a picture of opposition party leaders who had supported the reforms. Meloni announced last week that she would go to her polling station but not vote in any of the referendums, saying that abstention was 'a right for everyone'. "I don't agree with the subjects of the referendums and, as has always been the case in the nation's history, when you don't agree, abstention is also an option," she said. Of 77 referendums held over the past 50 years, only 39 met the voter threshold, and only four of those were held in the past 30 years. It's unclear how much of an impact the government's abstention campaign had on the turnout in this referendum. Riccardo Magi, leader of the centrist +Europa party, which had campaigned for the citizenship reform, said that "organised abstentionism strengthened by spontaneous abstentionism and lack of information" had won the day. Lorenzo Pregliasco, head of political polling agency Youtrend, told Huffpost Italia that the results showed that the referendum is "a tool in crisis". But there were other factors at play, he warned. "The referendum was politicised, particularly in the last few weeks [...]; the campaign wasn't inclusive of voters who weren't necessarily on the left," he said. "This may have pushed out those voters who were less militant and could have made the difference." It's not uncommon for politicians in Italy to tie support for a referendum to support for their own party – a strategy that's been known to backfire. In 2016, former PM Matteo Renzi was forced to step down after he said that a vote for his referendum on constitutional reform was a vote of confidence in his leadership – and lost. "The only real goal of this referendum was to bring down the Meloni government. In the end, however, it was the Italians who brought you down," Brothers of Italy wrote in the caption to their Facebook post. Meanwhile Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, did her best to present the result as a win for the opposition. "More voters voted for these referendums than those who put Meloni in government in 2022," she told reporters on Monday evening. "Politics that celebrates abstention only hurts itself." Following Monday's result, calls for a reform of referendum rules came from both ends of the political spectrum. "We may need to change the referendum law, we probably need more signatures, not least because we spent so much money to send millions of ballots to Italians abroad that went unused,' said Deputy PM Antonio Tajani. Under current rules, if a petition to change the law collects 500,000 signatures, the government must hold a public vote – which was the basis for introducing the referendum on citizenship. Others said the solution wasn't to lower the threshold for staging a referendum but to lower or even eliminate the voter threshold (or quorum). 'We'll need to adopt a different approach" given that 'no referendum has reached the quorum in recent years,' Benevento Mayor Clemente Mastella said. New rules should include the 'lowering of the quorum, which now seems almost impossible to reach,' he added.
Local Italy
7 hours ago
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Over 65 percent of voters back Italian citizenship reform in failed referendum
Over 65 percent of voters in a closely-watched citizenship referendum backed a proposal to ease the country's naturalisation rules by cutting the current 10-year residency requirement down to five years, according to Italy's interior ministry. Final voting figures were released late on Monday, hours after the referendum was declared void due to low turnout, as voter participation fell far short of the required threshold (over 50 percent). Multiple Italian media reports called the citizenship vote 'a flop' on Monday, noting how support for the proposed reform was far lower than in the four referendums on workers' rights, where the number of voters backing the proposals stood between 87 and 89 percent. The citizenship vote was meant to be 'the driving force for the other four referendums' but 'turned out to be the weakest one, with the lowest percentage of Yes votes,' Italian daily La Repubblica wrote. The citizenship vote outcome seemed to suggest that 'even among left-wing voters, there isn't much desire to speed up the process for becoming Italian,' it added in another report. News website Luce La Nazione was even more critical of the citizenship referendum results. If we assume that the majority of right-wing voters abstained from voting following calls from the ruling coalition to boycott the referendum, centre-left voters 'proved to be more keen on defending workers' rights than recognising the rights of foreign nationals,' the website said in its analysis. Members of Italy's opposition, which supported all five labour and citizenship referendums, have hit back at claims that the citizenship vote was 'a flop' in recent hours. Riccardo Magi, leader of the centre-left +Europa party, slammed the suggestions as 'fanciful interpretations' of the vote's result. The majority of voters 'said Yes to a reform of the citizenship laws' but 'will not see their request satisfied,' he said. 'This is an enormous democracy issue that we, as the promoting committee, raise," he noted, calling for a reform of the rules around referendums' voter threshold. Elly Schlein, leader of the Democratic Party (PD), said she was 'pleased' to see 14 million voters head to the polls despite calls to boycott the vote. 'The battle doesn't end today," she added, noting that workers' rights and citizenship are 'pivotal issues' for her party.
Local Italy
10 hours ago
- Local Italy
Is this the end of the road for Italy's citizenship reform?
It was always a long shot. But many of The Local's readers had their fingers crossed that there might be a chance of a Yes vote in the closely-watched referendum this week on whether Italy should cut the wait for those applying for citizenship through residency. Non-EU nationals must live in Italy for 10 years before they can start the application process, and usually have to wait several more years for it to be processed. The waiting time to apply would have been reduced to five years under the referendum proposal, putting Italy in line with other major European countries including Germany and France. But, as expected, voter turnout was too low, which meant that the referendum result was declared invalid. There's a minimum threshold, or quorum, of 50 percent for the vote to count. Turnout was 30.6 percent, slightly lower than polls predicted. This is nothing unusual in an Italian referendum. Participation has been historically low and falling for decades. As the results came in, there were renewed calls for sweeping changes to the country's referendum laws. There have long been calls for lowering the quorum from 50 to 40 percent, or eliminating it altogether. But, without this threshold, how would the vote have gone? Of the votes cast this time, 65 percent were in favour of changing the law on citizenship. While high enough for a positive result, this was lower than the percentage who voted in favour of the other four referendum questions (on workers' rights), which was 87 to 89 percent, reflecting divided public opinion. The leftwing opposition parties who backed the referendum said that it had sparked public debate on an issue that no one had been talking about. They could, in theory, put similar proposals to parliament in future. However, they'd be unlikely to get far while the ruling coalition government enjoys a majority in both houses. The government is strongly opposed to easing citizenship rules in any way. Senior ministers made it clear ahead of the vote that they didn't want the quorum to be reached, urging voters to 'stay home' or 'go to the beach'. The failure of the referendum was widely reported as a victory for Meloni, who had appeared at a polling station on Sunday to announce to reporters that she would not be voting. Her government's stance shouldn't surprise anyone. In March it abruptly forced through changes to the law on eligibility for Italian citizenship by descent, applying a two-generational limit. Last year, it quashed proposals to extend citizenship to young people who complete their education in Italy. As long as Meloni's government remains in power, any changes that would make the lives of foreign nationals in Italy easier seem a remote possibility. The proposal to cut the waiting period from 10 years to five originally came from Italiani senza cittadinanza (Italians Without Citizenship), a grassroots movement highlighting obstacles faced by would-be applicants. They say they'll continue to campaign on the issue. For those who plan to apply for citizenship via residency in the next few years, the wait continues.
