Italy holds referendum on citizenship, workers' rights

Italy holds referendum on citizenship, workers' rights

The referendum seeks to ease citizenship rules, with non-EU adult residents able to apply for citizenship after living in Italy for five years if approved

Italians began two days of voting Sunday in a referendum on easing citizenship rules and strengthening labour laws, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government opposed to both and urging people to abstain.

The five proposals on the ballot were not expected to pass, in light of low turnout and the requirement that over 50 percent of voters participate to validate the referendum.

Currently, a non-EU adult resident without marriage or blood ties to Italy must live in the country for 10 years before they can apply for citizenship -- a process which can then take years more.

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 irregular immigration even as her government has increased the number of migrant work visas, is strongly against it.

She said on 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".

- Low initial turnout -

More than 213,500 people acquired Italian citizenship in 2023, double the number from 2020 and accounting for one-fifth of the total number of naturalisations in EU countries, according to the bloc's 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 claiming blood ties to Italy from four to two generations.

Meloni and her coalition partners encouraged voters to boycott the referendum, which would invalidate it if it fails to clear the 50-percent-of-eligible-voters turnout.

As of 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) Sunday, national participation was at 15.8 percent, according to the interior ministry. Voting was to continue through to Monday afternoon. 

Casting a ballot for the first time in his life at a Rome polling station was Giovanni Puccini, 18, who called Meloni's instruction to abstain "disrespectful" of past sacrifices by Italians.

"You have to vote because in the past so many people fought, even died, for this right," he said.

His friend Pierre Donadio, 21, said less stringent citizenship laws were needed in the country, to boost diversity and prevent it "being too closed up in itself". 

Even if it passed, the reform would not affect a migration law many consider 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 outspoken in advocating a change to the law for children. He 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 -

The ballot includes one question on citizenship. The four others are on increasing protections for workers who are dismissed, in precarious situations or involved in workplace accidents.

Those changes were 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 centre-left Democratic Party is also backing the proposals -- even though it introduced some of the laws while in office in the past.

The proposals took aim at measures in a 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 behind Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy -- is seeking to woo working-class voters by backing the referendum reform.

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