The Italians vote on the rules of citizenship, labor laws – DW – 08/06/2025

The polls opened Italy On Sunday, during a two -day vote session for a referendum that could change the law of citizenship and labor laws.

The vote was launched by a basic campaign led by NGOs. According to the Italian Constitution, a referendum can be called if a petition is signed by at least 500,000 voters.

The results are expected after the surveys were closed on Monday at 3 p.m. local time (2 p.m. UTC). More than 51 million Italians are eligible to participate in the vote, but the results are only binding with a 50%stake.

Italy held 78 referendums, but the results of many of them have not been promulgated due to not reaching more than 50% participation.

Italians vote on the relaxation of citizenship rules

On the ballot are several questions related to the country’s labor law, while immigration policyA very disputed question in Italy is the one that welcomed the most attention.

Italians will be asked if they will support the reduction in the time necessary to request citizenship, which facilitates children born of foreigners in Italy to obtain citizenship.

Currently, an adult resident not of the EU without marriage or blood ties with Italy must live in the country for 10 years before being able to ask for citizenship. The referendum asks to reduce this to 5 years.

Activists for the change in the citizenship law say that this will help the second generation Italians born in the country of parents not to integrate better into a culture which they already see as their own.

They say that this reform would lead to the law of Italian citizenship in accordance with many other European countries, including Germany, adding that it would benefit around 2.5 million people.

Italian voters will also choose if they agree with the greater protections of workers against dismissal, access to higher layoff payments, support for the conversion of fixed -term contracts into a little responsibility in the event of work accidents.

The Meloni government encourages abstention

Politically, the Democratic Party of Center-Gauche and other groups opposing the current government of Italy support the referendum and urging voters to adopt the measures.

But the right coalition in power in Rome, led by the Prime Minister Giorgia meloniAdvises his supporters and the wider public not to participate, essentially hoping that the vote does not reach the 50%threshold.

Meloni said that she would go to the polls but not to vote, a decision which was widely criticized by the left as an anti -democratic.

The opinion of the opinion of last month showed that only 46% of Italians were aware of the problems that stimulate referendums. The participation rate should be around 35%, which would be much lower than the objective for reforms.

Meloni does not support the measure of citizenship. His brothers from the far -right party of Italy sought to slow down illegal immigration, while increasing the number of legal work visas for migrants.

She congratulated the current system as “an excellent law, among the most open, in the sense that we have for years have European nations which grant the greatest number of citizens each year”.

Published by: Roshni Majumdar