Citizenship referendum, race against time for signatures. How to sign and what is the deadline

The debate on the reform of the citizenship law restarted this summer. After the gold medal at the Olympics for the national women's volleyball team, led by, among others, iconic players such as Paola Egonu and Myriam Sylla, who, recalled coach Julio Velasco in an interview with Corriere della Sera, 'became Italian before they turned 18, when their parents did, otherwise they would not have been able to play on the national team'. The parties moved. But the bills presented by the opposition (including ius scholae and ius soli) to simplify the process of granting Italian citizenship are struggling to make inroads. And +Europa has therefore decided to try the referendum route by drafting a question calling for a reduction from 10 to 5 years of continuous legal residence in the country for adults to obtain Italian citizenship, extendable at that point to minor cohabiting children.

And now it is a race against time to collect the necessary 500,000 signatures. The legal deadline for any referendum to be held the following year is in fact 30 September. "The objective is difficult - underlines the secretary of +Europa Riccardo Magi who denounced how the online platform for the collection of subscriptions went down during the night due to the boom of accesses - but it is within reach for a reform of the law on citizenship that would make a step forward for our country. We need an extra effort from everyone to achieve this result'.

The 100,000 signatures have been surpassed so far, with an upsurge, say +Europa, also thanks to supporters of excellence such as Julio Velasco, coach of the women's national volleyball team. But also don Luigi Ciotti, Roberto Saviano, professor Alessandro Barbero, singer Levante, director Matteo Garrone, actor Andrea Pennacchi. A few days ago came that of the Dem secretary Elly Schlein, also after a meeting at the Nazareno with associations of second-generation Italians. And to have signed are a number of Dem mayors, such as Roberto Gualtieri (Rome), Stefano Lo Russo (Turin), Matteo Lepore (Bologna), Sara Funaro (Florence).

Given the tight timeframe, the promoter committee is relying on digital signatures that bypass the problem of banquets to be found and, above all, the sometimes lengthy timeframe of the signatories' voter registration certificates that the registry offices must transmit to the promoter committee. Thanks to the government platform it is in fact possible to authenticate through Spid or electronic identity card the signature to sign the referendum question. The signature is then certified in automatic connection with the national register of residents. Time for the operation: no more than two minutes.

The promoting committee's page explains that for the purposes of granting citizenship, in addition to uninterrupted residence in Italy (which this referendum proposes to reduce to five years) 'the other requirements already established by current legislation and case law would remain unchanged, such as: knowledge of the Italian language, possession of adequate economic sources, professional suitability, compliance with tax obligations, and the absence of hostile causes connected to the security of the Republic'. And that in Italy 'the people in possession of these requirements who could benefit directly or indirectly (cohabiting minor children) from the proposed intervention are about 2.5 million'.