Italy's citizenship referendum fails

2025-06-09 22:15:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

A referendum to ease citizenship rules and strengthen labor laws in Italy has failed due to low voter turnout. The defeat is a victory for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose government had called on people to boycott the referendum.

Over 50 percent of voters were required to participate in the vote in order for the two-day referendum to be considered valid, but after polls closed on Monday, it turned out that only over 30 percent of voters had voted in this referendum.

The referendum proposal, supported by the center-left Democratic Party, aimed to shorten the time required to obtain citizenship.

An adult resident who is not from the European Union, and who has no marital or blood ties to Italy, currently must live in the country for 10 years before they can apply for citizenship - a process that can then take several more years.

A victory in this referendum would have shortened this deadline to five years, putting Italy in line with Germany and France.

But Prime Minister Meloni, whose far-right Brothers of Italy party has prioritized combating irregular immigration, even as her government has increased the number of work visas for migrants, said she was "absolutely against" the idea.

Many members of her right-wing coalition called on citizens not to vote, so as not to reach the threshold necessary for the vote to be valid.

The ballot included a question on citizenship. Four others were about increasing protection for laid-off workers, those in precarious situations or involved in workplace accidents.

The general secretary of the CGIL union, Maurizio Landini, condemned the low voter turnout and said it was an indicator of a "clear democratic crisis" in Italy.

Under the new leadership, the Democratic Party – which is behind the Brothers of Italy, according to polls – had sought support for the referendum from working-class society.

Giovanbattista Fazzolari, Meloni's right-winger, said the opposition "wanted to turn this referendum into a referendum against Meloni's government."

Even if it had passed, the reform would not affect the migration law, which many consider unfair, which states that children born in Italy to parents from foreign countries cannot apply for citizenship until they turn 18./ REL