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Local Italy
5 days ago
- Politics
- Local Italy
FACT CHECK: Does Italy grant more citizenships than any other EU country?
As Italy prepares to vote on June 8-9th in a referendum on easing rules on applying for citizenship through naturalisation, or residency, the main argument against the proposal remains that it would make things too 'easy' for applicants. The strongest opposition to changing the rules comes from the government itself, with senior ministers of the ruling hard-right parties calling for supporters to abstain from voting, and insisting that making it easier for long-term residents to become Italian nationals would be 'dangerous'. According to Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant League party, cutting the wait time to apply from ten years down to five would mean "indiscriminately extending" the granting of citizenship. Italy is already 'the first European country in terms of granting citizenship every year,' he claimed at a press conference on May 19th. But data shows us that this is not strictly true, particularly when it comes to applications via the residency route. Italy has three main routes for citizenship applications: ancestry, residency, and marriage. Ancestry has long been the most commonly-taken route, followed by residency. According to the most recent statistics available from Eurostat, in 2023 Italy granted citizenship to some 214,000 residents. Spain meanwhile approved 240,000 requests from residents in the same year. In 2022, Italy was actually the European country with the highest number of applications for citizenship via residency granted, while in 2021 it ranked fourth, behind Spain, France and Germany. The above graph shows the rate of annual citizenship applications granted by Spain (in green) compared to Italy (in pink). Source: Eurostat The overall comparison shows that, between 2014 and 2023, Italy ranked first in the EU for citizenship for five years out of ten, not 'every year,' as Salvini claims. Going further back, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Italy granted citizenship at a much lower rate. And when we look at the numbers of new citizens via residency in each country as a percentage of the population, Italy drops further down the rankings. For example, in 2023 Italy granted citizenship to 3.6 foreign nationals per thousand residents, the fifth highest number behind Luxembourg, Sweden, Spain and Belgium. If the referendum passes, estimates suggest some 1.4 million people would be immediately eligible to apply for citizenship. However, the rules on eligibility would otherwise remain unchanged, meaning this would be unlikely to increase the number of applicants in the long term. And Italy is already set to see a sharp decline in the total number of applications for citizenship filed and granted in future. By far the largest proportion of all new Italian citizenship applications are made via ancestry, often by descendants of Italians who moved abroad several generations ago. But at the end of March 2023, the number of people eligible to apply via ancestry was slashed dramatically in reforms pushed through by the government.
Local Italy
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Italy
'Stay home': Italy's government boycotts 'dangerous' citizenship vote
In a little over two weeks' time, Italians will be called to vote in a referendum on whether to ease the rules on applying for residency-based Italian citizenship by halving the current wait time of 10 years of legal residency down to five. The vote requires a turnout of over 50 percent to be valid; if this quorum, or threshold, isn't met, the referendum won't count, regardless of the result. Based on recent trends, the chances of reaching the threshold don't look good: of 29 referendums held in Italy since 1995, only four have reached a quorum. And if Italy's right-wing coalition government has its way, this one won't be the fifth. While PM Giorgia Meloni has so far remained silent on the issue, Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa, from her Brothers of Italy party, has said he would "campaign to ensure that people stay home." His announcement came amid reports that Brothers of Italy leadership had sent a memo to party members urging them to promote a boycott of the referendum. Meanwhile Igor Iezzi, an MP from Deputy PM Matteo Salvini's anti-immigration League party, said earlier this month that abstention was his party's official position, adding, "our goal is to prevent the quorum from being reached." Salvini himself has simply said he'll be going to the beach instead of voting – a U-turn from his stance in the lead up to a 2022 referendum on reforming Italy's justice system, when he equated abstaining with "giving up". That referendum, which was personally championed by Salvini, ended up drawing a historically low voter turnout of just 21 percent. The government has responded to outrage from members of the opposition by arguing that abstention is legitimate under Italian law and that previous left-wing administrations also called on voters to abstain from voting in referendums. Those claims aren't untrue: according to political fact-checking site Pagella Politica, in 1999 Italy's centre-left government called on people to either vote no or abstain from voting in a referendum on reforming an electoral law. So (despite reports to the contrary) it's apparently not unprecedented for an Italian government to encourage its own citizens not to vote - though MP Riccardo Magi, leader of the centre-left +Europa party, has said it's not something a "normal country" ought to be doing. 'Giving citizenship away' The government is against the referendum on the grounds that a yes vote would make it too easy for foreigners to acquire citizenship, arguing that Italy already confers citizenship on more people every year than most other European countries. Salvini in particular has called the proposal "dangerous", saying it would "give citizenship away". Opposition leaders like Magi argue that this is untrue, and that the reform would simply make things slightly easier for legal residents who are nonetheless still required to demonstrate that they pay taxes, have no criminal record and speak Italian. While many of The Local's readers have said that a yes vote would change their lives for the better, they aren't the only group who stands to benefit. One of the main organisations backing the proposal is Italiani senza cittadinanza ('Italians without citizenship'), a movement that has long campaigned to introduce ius soli birthright citizenship in Italy. As things stand, people born to foreign parents in Italy can only apply for citizenship at the age of 18, on condition of having legally lived there "without interruption". If they don't apply before turning 19, they must (like all candidates for naturalisation) demonstrate 10 years of legal residency, then wait up to three years for their application to be approved. Easing this requirement is something Italy's 'centre-right' parties – currently formed of the ruling coalition of the Brothers of Italy, League, and Forza Italia, who came to power in 2022 on a platform of clamping down on 'illegal' immigration – have long stood against. But Italiani senza cittadinanza argue that the majority of Italians are in favour of changing the system, pointing to a recent survey that found that just over half of voters support lowering the residency requirement from 10 to five years. "It personally took me 19 long years to get citizenship," Italian actress and writer Tezetà Abraham told Internazionale magazine in a recent interview. "This would lower the parameters for applying by no small amount."
Local Italy
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Italy
FACT CHECK: Is air travel in Italy really becoming more pet-friendly?
Earlier this month, Italy announced that it had updated its air travel regulations for pets, allowing medium and large dogs to travel in the cabin alongside their owners for the first time. Italy's civil aviation authority ENAC confirmed the policy change in a press release that said pets could now be transported in cabins 'beyond the current limit of 8-10 kg'. "From now on dog and cat owners will have less difficulty flying with their four-legged friends," said Transport Minister and Deputy PM Matteo Salvini on his social media accounts. "Promise kept!" he added. The announcement was hailed by various travel news sites as a " landmark move set to transform pet-friendly travel" and a " pet travel revolution". Il Messaggero newspaper even went so far as to argue the move could have "significant economic repercussions" for the country, enabling Italy to become a European capital for pet tourism. But a closer look reveals that the rule change is unlikely to bring about the revolution these headlines suggest. As political fact-checking site Pagella Politica pointed out, the measure doesn't actually require airlines operating in Italy to increase their weight limit for pets, but merely gives them the option of doing so. Many airlines don't allow pets to travel on their planes at all unless they are service animals; for customers of these companies, the rule change won't make any difference. The new rules also say that pets "must be placed in approved carriers, which can also be placed on seats, without obstructing emergency exits or crew operations," and that these "must be secured with belts or specific anchoring systems." This means any carrier brought into the cabin must be able to fit on a plane seat, usually around 40-50cm in width: not large enough to contain a Labrador, let alone a Saint Bernard. Publicity stunt Salvini needs an easy win: his hard-right, anti-immigrant League party has waned in both popularity and influence in recent years, and is now polling at just over 8 percent, compared to 34 percent in 2019. When joining PM Giorgia Meloni's coalition government in 2022, he pushed hard to become interior minister, but instead found himself shunted into the unglamorous role of minister for transport and infrastructure. Since then, he has spent much of his time trying to cement his legacy through a contested project to build a bridge over the Strait of Messina, while periodically making headlines for arguing with other members of his own coalition. It's not surprising then that he'd make the most of the opportunity to win some support by throwing his weight behind as uncontroversial a campaign as increasing rights for pets and their owners.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Work on long-debated bridge to Sicily could begin in coming months
By Angelo Amante and Giuseppe Fonte ROME (Reuters) -Work to build a giant bridge connecting the Italian mainland to the island of Sicily is expected to begin over the summer, the infrastructure minister said on Monday, vowing to block any attempt by criminal groups to infiltrate the costly project. The project has been talked about for decades as a way to help develop the impoverished south of Italy but appeared to have been killed off for good in 2013, when the company created to oversee its construction was closed down as part of a drive to curb state spending and rein in public debt. However, Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini, the leader of the co-ruling League party, made it a priority and the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has set aside 13.5 billion euros ($15.2 billion) to build it. "If we are particularly, I won't say clever, but lucky and consistent, summer 2025 is the one for the works," Salvini told a press conference. The CEO of the bridge company, Pietro Ciucci, said the project still needed a final green light from a state committee overseeing strategic infrastructure and he hoped to submit the request by the end of June. The construction, by a consortium led by Italy's Webuild, would be some 3.6 km (2.2 miles) long, feature a central span measuring 3.3 km, and connect Sicily to the southern Calabria region. It has become a highly divisive issue in Italy. The bridge draws fierce criticism from those who question the wisdom of building it in an earthquake zone and those who say it would be a waste of money harmful to the landscape, amid fears that the Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta gangs based in the area could infiltrate the works to reap huge profits. But the project also has strong support from those who believe a fast rail and road connection as an alternative to the current ferry crossing of the Strait of Messina would boost southern Italy. Salvini rebuffed security concerns, saying the bridge would be able to withstand the forces of nature, and maintained that refusing to implement projects in mafia-tainted areas would amount to a "state surrender" to the criminals. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said a centralised anti-mafia body would make checks on companies involved, with a focus on those sectors particularly exposed to mob infiltration, such as the disposal of waste materials. ($1 = 0.8883 euros)
Straits Times
19-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Work on long-debated bridge to Sicily could begin in coming months
A view shows the Strait of Messina where a government project to build a bridge to connect the Italian mainland to the island of Sicily has been in the planning stages for years, as seen from the small village of Cannitello, Italy, January 2, 2025. REUTERS/Daniele Mascolo/File Photo ROME - Work to build a giant bridge connecting the Italian mainland to the island of Sicily is expected to begin over the summer, the infrastructure minister said on Monday, vowing to block any attempt by criminal groups to infiltrate the costly project. The project has been talked about for decades as a way to help develop the impoverished south of Italy but appeared to have been killed off for good in 2013, when the company created to oversee its construction was closed down as part of a drive to curb state spending and rein in public debt. However, Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini, the leader of the co-ruling League party, made it a priority and the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has set aside 13.5 billion euros ($15.2 billion) to build it. "If we are particularly, I won't say clever, but lucky and consistent, summer 2025 is the one for the works," Salvini told a press conference. The CEO of the bridge company, Pietro Ciucci, said the project still needed a final green light from a state committee overseeing strategic infrastructure and he hoped to submit the request by the end of June. The construction, by a consortium led by Italy's Webuild, would be some 3.6 km (2.2 miles) long, feature a central span measuring 3.3 km, and connect Sicily to the southern Calabria region. It has become a highly divisive issue in Italy. The bridge draws fierce criticism from those who question the wisdom of building it in an earthquake zone and those who say it would be a waste of money harmful to the landscape, amid fears that the Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta gangs based in the area could infiltrate the works to reap huge profits. But the project also has strong support from those who believe a fast rail and road connection as an alternative to the current ferry crossing of the Strait of Messina would boost southern Italy. Salvini rebuffed security concerns, saying the bridge would be able to withstand the forces of nature, and maintained that refusing to implement projects in mafia-tainted areas would amount to a "state surrender" to the criminals. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said a centralised anti-mafia body would make checks on companies involved, with a focus on those sectors particularly exposed to mob infiltration, such as the disposal of waste materials. ($1 = 0.8883 euros) REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
