On June 5, Meloni defended Italy’s current citizenship laws as “excellent and also very inclusive” and stated she was “completely against” proposed amendments.
Italian public media and government officials largely overlooked the referendum, with Forza Italia, a coalition partner of Meloni, sharing an image on X featuring a swimming pool, sandals, and sunglasses, captioned “sorry if we didn’t post anything today, we were all at the beach.”
The public voted on five topics, four relating to labor rights, which received over 85 percent support.
The immigration issue vote was tighter, with about 65 percent supporting the change. The proposal aimed to decrease the residency requirement for non-Italians seeking citizenship from 10 to five years.
The proposed change would have impacted around 2.5 million foreign nationals and was an effort to address Italy’s significant demographic challenges. Italy has the EU’s oldest population (median age 48.4) and the lowest proportion of children under 15 (12.4 percent).
Maurizio Landini, head of the Italian General Confederation of Labour union, viewed the low voter turnout as indicative of a “clear democratic crisis” in Italy, admitting: “We knew it wouldn’t be a walk in the park.”













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