On Tuesday (24 September), the petition to change Italy’s citizenship law hit its target of 500,000 signatures in less than a month, paving the way for a national referendum, bypassing the parliament.
The bottom-up proposal hit its signature target in record time, collecting over 300,000 signatures in just five days, bolstered by the backing of prominent figures from media, music, sports, and entertainment.
The referendum aims to reform the current 1992 law, reducing the required period of continuous legal residency for adults to apply for Italian citizenship from 10 years to 5. This change would affect roughly 2.5 million foreign residents in the country.
The success of the bottom-up approach – effectively bypassing the Italian parliament, now ruled by a conservative majority – opens the door to new opportunities for civil society to propose social changes through referendums.
The reform would bring Italy in line with the citizenship laws of major European countries. Currently, Sweden, Ireland, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom all require five years of residency to obtain citizenship. At the beginning of this year, Germany lowered the time needed to acquire citizenship to five years in an attempt to tackle labour shortages in the country.
The referendum was proposed in early September by the party +Europa (Renew), along with various civil society organisations and other smaller political groups.
Efforts to change Italy’s citizenship law are not new in a country known for its restrictive stance. Italy follows the principle of jus sanguinis, tying the right to citizenship to ancestry, which means a person acquires nationality through their parents, regardless of where they are born.
In contrast, jus soli grants citizenship based on birthplace, allowing individuals born within a country’s territory to automatically become citizens, even if their parents are foreign nationals.
The proposal has split the progressive camp. Giuseppe Conte, leader of the M5S (The Left), decided not to support it, stating that he prefers to focus on the Ius Scholae initiative, which aims to grant citizenship to those who complete a cycle of studies in the country.
The Ius Scholae proposal was pushed forward by Antonio Tajani, leader of Forza Italia (EPP), over the summer, but it has caused tensions within the governing coalition, as both PM Giorgia Meloni (ECR) and coalition partner Matteo Salvini’s Lega (PfE) are strongly opposed to it.
The shift in Italy, along with strong civil society participation, contrasts sharply with the current trend across other European countries, where stricter citizenship requirements are being proposed and enacted.
France has tightened jus soli citizenship rights for children of foreign parents born in the country. After the approval of the Loi Immigration last December, second-generation French will no longer automatically gain French nationality in adulthood and must now apply between the ages of 16 and 18.
Last October, under the conservative leadership of PM Petteri Orpo, the Finnish government decided to increase the time needed for obtaining citizenship from five years to eight.
In Belgium, a proposal by the Flemish right-wing N-VA party wishes to tighten the country’s citizenship law, increasing the application fee from €150 to €5,000, the Brussels Times reports.
The Italian referendum proposal will now undergo legal review by the High Court and Constitutional Court. If approved, the country will head to a referendum in the spring of 2025.
[Edited by Martina Monti]
Source: euractiv.com
