Low turnout set to thwart moves to ease Italian citizenship rules

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attends the European Political Community summit in Tirana, Albania, Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj) (Vlasov Sulaj/AP)

ROME — Voting resumed on Monday for Italy’s two-day referendum on proposals to make it easier to obtain Italian citizenship and strengthen labor rights, but low turnout looked set to make the vote invalid.

Data overnight showed under 23 per cent of eligible voters had cast their ballots as polls provisionally closed on Sunday, far short of the 50 per cent plus one of the electorate needed to make the outcome of the vote binding.

Voting ends at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT).

One of the five referendums is about reducing the period of residence required to apply for Italian citizenship by naturalization to five years from 10 years. This could affect about 2.5 million foreign nationals, organizers say.

With Italy’s birthrate in sharp decline, economists say the country needs to attract more foreigners to boost its anemic economy, and migrant workers feel a lot is at stake for them as they seek closer integration into Italian society.

Three other referendum questions would reverse a decade-old liberalization of the labor market, and a fourth concerns liability rules for accidents at work.

Opposition leftist and centrist parties, civil society groups and a leading trade union have latched on to the issues of labor rights and Italy’s demographic woes as a way of challenging Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition government that took power almost three years ago.

Meloni and her allies encouraged their supporters to boycott the vote. The prime minister attended a polling station in Rome on Sunday but her staff confirmed that she did not collect ballot papers and did not cast a vote, a tactic she had indicated that she would adopt.

A low turnout and a failed referendum could lead to further infighting among center-left opposition groups which have struggled to find a way to dent Meloni’s popularity since she came to power.

Reporting by Angelo Amante and Alvise ArmelliniWriting by Keith Weir; Editing by Sharon Singleton.