The Failed Referendum: How Italy Voted Down Easier Citizenship, and What It Means
On June 8 and 9, 2025, Italy held a national referendum that included a question on reducing the residency requirement for naturalization from ten years to five. The proposal could have affected 2.5 million foreign nationals. Instead, it was defeated before a single vote was counted: only 30 percent of eligible voters turned out, far below the 50 percent quorum required. Prime Minister Meloni’s coalition had openly campaigned for Italians to stay home.
What Was on the Ballot
The referendum presented five questions to Italian voters. Four concerned labor market reforms promoted by the CGIL trade union confederation. The fifth, and most politically charged, asked whether Italy should reduce from ten to five years the period of legal residency required for non-EU citizens to apply for naturalization as Italian citizens.
The citizenship question had been championed by Riccardo Magi, secretary of the centrist +Europa party, and supported by a coalition of smaller parties and civil society organizations. The campaign gathered over 637,000 signatures, well above the constitutional minimum of 500,000 needed to trigger a referendum.
Supporters argued that the change would bring Italy in line with other major European countries, including Germany and France, and would help second-generation immigrants, many born and raised in Italy, access full citizenship rights more quickly. Italian economists also noted that easing naturalization could help address Italy’s demographic crisis: the country has one of Europe’s lowest birth rates, with only 12 percent of the population under 14.
The Boycott Strategy
Italy’s referendum system requires a participation quorum: at least 50 percent plus one of eligible voters must cast a ballot for the result to be valid. This structural feature creates a powerful incentive for opponents to encourage abstention rather than voting “no.” By staying home, they can defeat a referendum without ever losing a popular vote.
Prime Minister Meloni and her governing coalition exploited this dynamic openly. Meloni declared herself “absolutely against” the citizenship proposal and announced she would visit a polling station but not actually cast a ballot. Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa, from Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, explicitly campaigned for supporters to stay home. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the League party, celebrated the result by declaring that “citizenship is not a gift.”
The Numbers
Final turnout: approximately 30 percent, far below the 50 percent quorum. Of those who did vote, 65 percent voted in favor of reducing the residency requirement. The referendum was declared invalid due to insufficient participation. Since 1995, only four of 34 Italian referendums have reached the required quorum.
What This Reveals About Italian Citizenship Politics
The failed referendum illuminated several dynamics that are essential context for understanding the broader citizenship reform landscape:
Citizenship restriction has bipartisan political appeal in Italy. While the Meloni government led the opposition to the referendum, the broader political environment in Italy has moved toward a more restrictive conception of citizenship. The idea that citizenship should reflect a “genuine connection” to Italy, rather than distant ancestry or years of residency alone, has gained traction across the political spectrum.
The quorum mechanism is a structural barrier to reform. With Italian voter turnout in long-term decline, the 50 percent quorum makes it extraordinarily difficult for any referendum to succeed if a significant political faction opposes it. Opposition parties and civil society groups have called for abolishing or lowering the quorum, but any such change would itself require legislative action that the governing coalition has no incentive to support.
The referendum was about naturalization, not ius sanguinis. It is important to note that the referendum addressed only the residency-based naturalization pathway for immigrants. It had nothing to do with citizenship by descent (ius sanguinis), which is governed by a separate set of legal provisions. The two issues are often conflated in political discourse, but they involve fundamentally different legal principles and different populations.
The Broader Context
The referendum took place against the backdrop of D.L. 36/2025, which had been issued just two months earlier. Italy was simultaneously restricting citizenship by descent (the Tajani Decree) and rejecting a proposal to ease naturalization for long-term residents (the referendum). The combined effect was a tightening of access to Italian citizenship from both directions.
For descendants of Italian emigrants, the referendum’s failure was significant not because it directly affected their rights, but because it demonstrated the political environment in which their legal challenges would be adjudicated. The courts, not the political process, remain the most viable avenue for protecting citizenship rights in the current Italian landscape.
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This article is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Last updated: March 21, 2026.