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CTV News
16 hours ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Italy's referendum on citizenship and job protections fails because of low turnout
Ballot papers are prepared on a table for referendums on citizenship and job protections, at a polling station in Milan, Italy, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP) ROME — Italy's referendums aimed at relaxing citizenship laws and improving job protections failed on Monday because of low turnout. But organizers said that it contributed to restarting the public debate in the country over high-stakes issues. The result was a clear defeat for the center-left opposition and a victory for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her ruling right-wing coalition, which openly supported abstention. Final data showed that turnout stood at 30.6% of eligible voters after two days of polling, well below the 50% plus one required to make the vote valid. Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party celebrated the referendum's failure. 'The only real goal of this referendum was to bring down the Meloni government,' the party said on social media, posting a picture of the main opposition's leaders. 'In the end, it was the Italians who brought you down.' Maurizio Landini, leader of the CGIL trade union that was behind the initiative, acknowledged the defeat, but stressed it could be a starting point to revive key social battles focusing on workers' rights. 'We knew it wouldn't be a walk in the park,' he said. 'There is an obvious crisis of democracy and participation.' Landini noted that more than 14 million Italians cast their ballots in the two-days referendum, with more than 80% voting in favor of the proposed measures aimed at strengthening job protections. The five proposals wanted to make it easier for immigrants and children born in Italy to foreigners to obtain citizenship — halving the years of residency required to five from 10 — and provide more job protections. The leader of Italy'a center-left Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, stressed that 'more electors voted in these referendums than those who voted for the right in 2022, backing Meloni in government.' Rights at stake Campaigners for the change in the citizenship law said that it would help second-generation Italians born in the country to non- European Union parents better integrate into a culture they already see as theirs. The new rules, if passed, would have affected about 2.5 million foreign nationals who still struggle to be recognized as citizens. Activist groups said that the proposed reforms also would have allowed faster access to civil and political rights, such as the right to vote, eligibility for public employment and freedom of movement within the EU. The referendum on citizenship, however, proved to be more divisive than the others, as only about 65% voted 'yes' in support of measures easing the current laws. Activists and opposition parties denounced the lack of public debate on the measures, accusing the governing coalition of having tried to dampen interest in sensitive issues that directly impact immigrants and workers. In May, Italy's AGCOM communications authority filed a complaint against RAI state television and other broadcasters over a lack of adequate and balanced coverage. Opinion polls published in mid-May showed that only 46% of Italians were aware of the issues driving the referendums. 'Many believe that the referendum institution should be reviewed in light of the high levels of abstention (that) emerged in recent elections and the turnout threshold should be lowered,' said Lorenzo Pregliasco, political analyst and pollster at YouTrend. Giada Zampano, The Associated Press
Al Jazeera
17 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Italian referendum on easing citizenship rules thwarted by low turnout
An Italian referendum on easing citizenship rules and strengthening labour protections has failed after hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni encouraged voters to boycott the vote. As polls closed on Monday, it emerged that many citizens had heeded Meloni's call as only 30 percent of the electorate cast their ballots over two days of voting, far short of the 50 percent plus one needed to make the result legally binding. The outcome was a clear defeat for the centre-left opposition, which had proposed to halve the period of residence required to apply for Italian citizenship from 10 to five years and to reverse labour market liberalisations introduced a decade ago. The prime minister said she was 'absolutely against' the citizenship proposals, announcing she would turn up at the polls but not cast a vote. A stated goal of Meloni's government is to cut irregular immigration, but it has increased the number of immigrant work visas. The general secretary of the Italian General Confederation of Labour union, Maurizio Landini, slammed the low turnout as a sign of a 'clear democratic crisis' in Italy. 'We knew it wouldn't be a walk in the park,' he said, stressing that millions of Italians had turned up to fight for change. Meloni's Brothers of Italy party posted on social media that the 'only real goal' of the referendum was to bring down the Meloni government, and it added, alongside pictures of opposition leaders: 'In the end, it was the Italians who brought you down.' Opinion polls published in mid-May showed that 46 percent of Italians were aware of the issues driving the referendums. Activists and opposition parties accused the governing coalition of deliberately dampening interest in sensitive issues that directly affect immigrants and workers. Campaigners for the change in the citizenship law said it would help the children of non-European Union parents better integrate into a culture they already see as theirs. Changes to the laws would have affected about 2.5 million foreign nationals. Other questions in the referendum dealt with labour-related issues like better protections against dismissal, higher severance payments and the conversion of fixed-term contracts into permanent ones. Opposition forces had hoped that promoting these causes would help them woo working class voters and challenge Meloni, something they have struggled to do since she came to power in 2022. Many of the 78 referendums held in Italy in the past have failed due to low turnout.
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
Italy holds referendum on citizenship, workers' rights
Italians vote on Sunday and Monday in a referendum on easing citizenship rules and strengthening labour laws, with Giorgia Meloni's government opposing both changes and urging people to abstain. 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.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Italy holds referendum on citizenship, workers' rights
Italians vote on Sunday and Monday in a referendum on easing citizenship rules and strengthening labour laws, with Giorgia Meloni's government opposing both changes and urging people to abstain. 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. str-ar/ide/ams/djt/dhw
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meloni is still proving her Leftie critics wrong
Giorgia Meloni's opponents and their many friends in the media are cock-a-hoop that the Left has managed to win elections in a couple of large Italian cities. They are treating the victories of the Left in Genoa and Ravenna earlier this month, when elections took place for control of 126 councils, including a handful of major cities, as the beginning of the end for Italy's first female prime minister. It helped the headline writers that the victor in Genoa was a glamorous ex Olympic hammer thrower who had delivered a mighty blow to Meloni. But it is all surely nonsense. If it were true that Meloni's days were numbered, the Right-wing party she founded, Brothers of Italy, would not be consistently leading national opinion polls by a country mile. Nor would Brothers of Italy be more popular now than in September 2022, when it received more votes than any other party at the general election to lead a Right-wing coalition to a resounding victory. Such impressive popular support halfway through the life of a parliament is virtually unprecedented in a European democracy. It is especially so in a country like Italy, which has had 68 governments since the fall of fascism in 1945. But to read the press headlines readers would be forgiven if they thought the end was truly nigh for Meloni. Elly Schlein, leader of the main opposition – the Democratic Party – reacted as if on the verge of power. 'If I were Giorgia Meloni I'd be beginning to worry, [this] is the symptom that something in her rapport with the country is broken,' she said. 'What is now clear is that the centre-Right crows about the polls but we win elections.' At least Schlein had the decency to refer to Meloni as 'centre-Right', unlike most of the global media. True, they have given up calling her 'the heir to Mussolini' because she was once in Italy's long-defunct post-fascist party. But they still call her 'far-Right' despite the fact that she has not done anything far-Right – unless you count her attempts to stop mass illegal migration across the Mediterranean. And even Sir Keir Starmer, who has had talks with her on the issue twice in the past year, has said she has made 'remarkable progress'. He wants to copy her scheme to off-shore asylum seekers from safe countries (thus technically not refugees) to Albania for swift processing of their asylum requests and deportation. Is he now 'far-Right' too? On the world stage, meanwhile, Meloni continues in the role of key player whose astute down to earth realism, infectious charm and youthful good looks often produce surprising results. What makes it even more laughable that the Left should regard victory in Genoa and Ravenna as the writing on the wall for Meloni is that traditionally these two port cities have been citadels of Italian communism. Genoa has always been among the most devoutly Left-wing cities in Italy. And Italy, it should be remembered, is the country that not only invented fascism but had the largest communist party in Europe outside the Soviet Bloc until the end of the Cold War. Schlein's party is its heir. In Ravenna, the Left won as it always has done since the fall of fascism in 1945. Worse for Schlein is that the Democratic Party did not win Genoa and Ravenna on its own but only in coalition with the anti-establishment populist party, Five Star, with which it enjoys a love-hate relationship. These two parties are normally sworn enemies but have nevertheless, on occasion, allied at local level and once at national level to form a coalition government that lasted a year and a half. Even if they were to strike a deal to fight the next general election in 2027 together they would get nowhere near enough votes to win: the Democratic Party is currently polling 22 per cent, and Five Star 12 per cent. Meloni's coalition government, by contrast, is way ahead with Brothers of Italy polling 30 per cent, and its partners Forza Italia and the League both on 9 per cent. Schlein's only hope would be to ally as well with what is called the campo largo (large field) – not just with Five Star but with the other much smaller Left-wing parties of shades of pink and red. This is what her party did in Genoa. But its real problem is Schlein's lack of charisma and winning policies. Her party seems to be, as journalist Aldo Cazzullo, no friend of the Right, wrote in the Corriere della Sera 'a little 5 per cent party of the extreme Left' with no concrete ideas. 'If there were a general election now, the Right would win convincingly,' he said. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
