Italy’s Citizenship Referendum Fails

By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief

ROME (Worthy News) – Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had reasons to celebrate Wednesday as most Italians followed her call to stay away from a referendum on easing citizenship laws for migrants.

In a significant setback for the leftist opposition, official results showed that the vote was declared invalid as fewer than the required 50 percent of eligible voters bothered to cast ballots.

“I am not surprised. In this hot summer weather, many prefer to go to the beach rather than to visit a polling station,” Hungarian-Italian Agnese Tiberi told Worthy News.

A coalition of political parties, unions, and civil society groups had promoted the five-question referendum.

The proposals included halving the period of residence required to apply for Italian citizenship by naturalisation to five years from 10, and strengthening job protection.

However, in a nation already overwhelmed by migrants fleeing war, persecution, and poverty, often from Muslim countries, easing the rules wasn’t seen as realistic by Meloni and her populist rightwing government.

Meloni went to her voting station on Sunday but did not pick up her ballot paper to not contribute to the votes reaching quorum.

GOING TO BEACH

Government officials had “strongly urged Italians to snub the vote “and go to the beach instead.”

It seemed to have worked with only about 30 percent of voters participating in the referendum.

The government said the result had been a defeat for the leftist opposition, which had said the passage of the referendum would have sent an “eviction notice” to Giorgia Meloni.

“It has been a big defeat for the left, which strengthens the government,” predicted Antonio Tajani, the deputy prime minister and leader of Forza Italia party, one of the coalition parties

Results showed differences in voting between the labour-related measures and the question about easing citizenship rules, which was far more contentious given Meloni’s hard line against mass migration.

More than 85 percent of those who participated in the two-day vote backed stronger protection for workers, but roughly a third opposed speeding up the procedures for gaining citizenship.

Analysts said it indicated divisions among progressive voters on the issue of migration.

MODERATE LEFT

“There is a part of the more moderate left-wing electorate that does not share the [progressive]parties’ positions on migrants. They are not against them, but they want laws that can limit entry and citizenship,” explained polling expert Antonio Noto.

The data suggested some of Italy’s right-leaning voters had defied calls from their parties’ leaders to boycott the referendum and had likely helped boost the “No” vote on citizenship.

Pollsters noticed voters in wealthier cities, including Milan and Turin, strongly supported reforming citizenship rules.

However, that number decreased in the suburbs, suggesting that lower-income voters are more conservative on the issue.

The outcome underscored that many voters still back the fiercely anti-migrant Meloni, who has remained popular since taking office in October 2022 as leader of a right-wing coalition.

This week, a poll from the SWG institute put her Brothers of Italy party at just above 30 percent, up from the 26 percent it won in a 2022 national election. The main opposition center-left Democratic Party (PD) stood at 23 percent in the survey.

Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.