Italy holds referendum on citizenship, workers’ rights

ROME – Italians vote on June 8 and 9 in a referendum on easing citizenship rules and strengthening labour laws, with Ms 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 he or she can apply for citizenship – a process which can then take years.

The referendum proposal, triggered by a grassroots campaign led by non-governmental organisations (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.

Ms 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 on June 5 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 per cent 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.

Ms Meloni and her coalition partners have encouraged voters to boycott the referendum, which will be valid only if 50 per cent 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 years of age.

Prominent rapper Ghali, who was born in Milan to Tunisian parents, has been an outspoken advocate of changing the law for children, but nevertheless urged fans to back June 8’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 then Democratic Party Prime Minister Matteo Renzi 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 per cent, behind Ms Meloni’s Brothers of Italy at about 30 per cent, according to an SWG survey this week – is seeking to woo working-class voters by backing the referendum reform. AFP