The citizenship referendum is a case: 35% voted no

The data are still partial and the number of sections counted is only a few hundred compared to the 61,591 total, but those who went to vote in the referendum on the five questions on labour and citizenship mainly voted 'yes' to the request to repeal the labour and citizenship laws. But there is one figure that stands out above all others and that concerns the citizenship law where more than one in three voters said 'no'.

The questions on labour, with around 5% of the sections counted, saw 87.59% yes on reinstatement of illegitimate dismissals, 85.85% yes on dismissals and compensation limit, 87% yes on protection of fixed-term contracts and 84.86% yes on liability for accidents at work. The match between 'yes' and 'no' on the amendment of the citizenship law was more close, with 60.83% 'yes' but 39.17% 'no'.

Referendum question No. 5 called for halving from 10 to 5 years the time of legal residence in Italy of non-EU foreigners of age to apply for Italian citizenship. The number of sections received from Italy was 19358 out of 61591; while the number of sections received from abroad was 4 out of 1863. The number of male voters was 22,246,208, while there were 23,751,733 female voters. A total of 45,997,941 voters in Italy and 5,303,436 voters abroad. According to the latest data, 35% of voters voted no, i.e. in favour of not changing the law that provides for the recognition of Italian citizenship after 10 years of residence in the country.

"As far as political evaluations are concerned, the instrument of the referendum to launch political initiatives has not worked out well. Think of citizenship: five years to become an Italian citizen is too little. So much so that even among those who went to vote there is a large proportion of voters who voted no. The fairest reform to guarantee integration is that of Fratelli d'Italia: 10 years of schooling with profit and then you can apply for citizenship. This is the ius scholae that starts from our bill'. This was said by Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani.

One region that stands out among others on the referendum question for citizenship is Lazio. Sixty-seven per cent (when about half of the total of 5323 sections were counted) were for the 'yes' vote, while the remainder of the voters chose the 'no' side. Thus, more than 289,000 voted 'yes', i.e. to reduce from 10 to 5 years the legal residence required in Italy in order to apply for Italian citizenship, the other 137,000 voters voted 'no'.