By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief
ROME (Worthy News) – Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had reasons to celebrate Wednesday as most Italians followed her call to stay away from a referendum on easing citizenship laws for migrants.
In a significant setback for the leftist opposition, official results showed that the vote was declared invalid as fewer than the required 50 percent of eligible voters bothered to cast ballots.
“I am not surprised. In this hot summer weather, many prefer to go to the beach rather than to visit a polling station,” Hungarian-Italian Agnese Tiberi told Worthy News.
A coalition of political parties, unions, and civil society groups had promoted the five-question referendum.
The proposals included halving the period of residence required to apply for Italian citizenship by naturalisation to five years from 10, and strengthening job protection.
However, in a nation already overwhelmed by migrants fleeing war, persecution, and poverty, often from Muslim countries, easing the rules wasn’t seen as realistic by Meloni and her populist rightwing government.
Meloni went to her voting station on Sunday but did not pick up her ballot paper to not contribute to the votes reaching quorum.
GOING TO BEACH
Government officials had “strongly urged Italians to snub the vote “and go to the beach instead.”
It seemed to have worked with only about 30 percent of voters participating in the referendum.
The government said the result had been a defeat for the leftist opposition, which had said the passage of the referendum would have sent an “eviction notice” to Giorgia Meloni.
“It has been a big defeat for the left, which strengthens the government,” predicted Antonio Tajani, the deputy prime minister and leader of Forza Italia party, one of the coalition parties
Results showed differences in voting between the labour-related measures and the question about easing citizenship rules, which was far more contentious given Meloni’s hard line against mass migration.
More than 85 percent of those who participated in the two-day vote backed stronger protection for workers, but roughly a third opposed speeding up the procedures for gaining citizenship.
Analysts said it indicated divisions among progressive voters on the issue of migration.
MODERATE LEFT
“There is a part of the more moderate left-wing electorate that does not share the [progressive]parties’ positions on migrants. They are not against them, but they want laws that can limit entry and citizenship,” explained polling expert Antonio Noto.
The data suggested some of Italy’s right-leaning voters had defied calls from their parties’ leaders to boycott the referendum and had likely helped boost the “No” vote on citizenship.
Pollsters noticed voters in wealthier cities, including Milan and Turin, strongly supported reforming citizenship rules.
However, that number decreased in the suburbs, suggesting that lower-income voters are more conservative on the issue.
The outcome underscored that many voters still back the fiercely anti-migrant Meloni, who has remained popular since taking office in October 2022 as leader of a right-wing coalition.
This week, a poll from the SWG institute put her Brothers of Italy party at just above 30 percent, up from the 26 percent it won in a 2022 national election. The main opposition center-left Democratic Party (PD) stood at 23 percent in the survey.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
A revised draft of a UN Security Council resolution outlining the “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict” is set to be circulated by the United States for review among Security Council members, according to an exclusive report by The Jerusalem Post.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has declined to immediately pursue membership in the Abraham Accords, citing Israel’s control of the Golan Heights as a primary obstacle, though he suggested the Trump administration could eventually facilitate such negotiations.
French authorities have opened a formal judicial inquiry after chaos erupted during a concert by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris, where protesters lit flares and shouted anti-Israel slogans before being subdued by audience members.
Russia’s Republic of Dagestan has become the focus of an embarrassing aviation scandal after a helicopter carrying senior defense-industry officials broke apart in mid-air and crashed — an event caught on video and widely shared online, prompting authorities to launch a criminal investigation.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) faced an unprecedented crisis Monday after its director-general and head of news resigned amid accusations of political bias at what was once regarded as the flagship of both Britain and journalism worldwide.
President Donald Trump secured a significant diplomatic breakthrough Monday as Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa signed an agreement bringing Syria into the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, making the war-torn nation the 90th member of the U.S.-led counterterrorism alliance.
In a disappointing setback for religious freedom advocates, the U.S. Supreme Court declined without comment to hear former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis’s appeal, leaving in place a $360,000 judgment against her for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The justices let stand lower court rulings that found she violated couples’ constitutional rights under the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, despite what her legal team characterizes as a conflict with her First Amendment religious liberty rights.