Italian voters held a referendum to decide whether to relax the requirements for immigration and naturalization

Italian voters held a referendum on easing citizenship regulations and strengthening labor laws. The government led by Prime Minister Meloni opposed both proposals and called on the public to abstain.

Agence France-Presse reported that Italian voters began a two-day referendum on Sunday (June 8th) to vote on the above two topics and three other proposals.

At present, non-EU adult residents without marital or blood ties must have resided in Italy for 10 years before they can apply for naturalization. The application processing may take several years.

This referendum proposal was driven by a grassroots movement initiated by non-governmental organizations, aiming to shorten the 10-year residence requirement to five years, thereby aligning Italy with Germany and France. Activists say the reform is expected to benefit about 2.5 million people.

This initiative has received strong support from the centre-left Democratic Party. The far-right Brotherly Italia party led by Meloni has been focusing on cracking down on illegal immigrants and strongly opposing this proposal.

According to EU statistics, in 2023, over 213,500 people obtained Italian citizenship, twice the number in 2020, accounting for one fifth of the total number of naturalized citizens in EU countries. Among them, over 90% of the naturalized citizens come from countries outside the European Union, mainly from Albania and Morocco, as well as Argentina and Brazil.

Meloni and her ruling coalition partners have called on voters to boycott the referendum. If the turnout does not reach the threshold of 50% of eligible voters, the result of the referendum will be regarded as invalid.