Five referendums are being held in Italy today and tomorrow, ANSA, “Sky TG 24“, “TG com 24“ and “RAI News“ report, quoted by BTA.
Four of the issues to be voted on concern labor legislation and are proposed by the General Italian Labor Confederation union. The fifth issue concerns the acquisition of Italian citizenship. It was proposed by one of the leaders of the pro-European party “More Europe“ Riccardo Maggi, by several small left-wing parties and by many associations representing civil society. Over 630,000 signatures were collected in support of the idea of organizing a referendum. On January 20, 2025, the Constitutional Court said that a referendum could also be organized on this issue. The issue concerns reducing the requirement from 10 to 5 years of residence in Italy for adult foreigners from non-EU countries to be able to apply for Italian citizenship.
Three parties in the ruling coalition - the conservative right-wing “Italian Brothers“ of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the far-right “Lega“ of Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and the center-right “Forza Italia“ of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani - announced that they would abstain from voting on all five issues, ANSA recalls. The junior coalition partner in the ruling coalition, the party “We the Moderates“ Maurizio Lupi's party said it would vote "No" on all issues. The main opposition center-left Democratic Party officially said it would vote "Yes" on all five issues.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was asked by journalists how she would approach the referendums and she replied that she would go to the polling station but would not cast ballots. This was seen by opposition parties as a mockery of Italians from the prime minister's camp, ANSA notes. But Meloni said that representatives of the left had acted in the same way in the past. She accused the left of initiating referendums on issues that it could have changed in parliament when it was in power but did not.