JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
An Italian referendum on granting faster citizenship to immigrants has failed because of low voter turnout, and there's a story behind this low turnout. As NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports, Italy's right-wing anti-immigration government was against the referendum proposal, and rather than campaign for its supporters to vote no, it tried to boycott the democratic process.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MAURIZIO LANDINI: (Speaking Italian).
RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: Maurizio Landini, the secretary-general of the trade union that helped bring about the referendum. In conceding defeat, he said union members had always known this referendum wouldn't be easy, but it was crucial to keep these issues on the table.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LANDINI: (Speaking Italian).
SHERLOCK: Italians were asked to vote on whether to keep laws that liberalized the labor market and on the controversial topic of Italian citizenship. The question - whether to reduce from 10 years to five years the time it takes to naturalize as an Italian. Campaigners for the change in the law said this would help second-generation Italians born here to foreigners who can spend years, often long into adulthood, battling to get full citizenship rights from the only country they know as home.
Coming out of a polling station in Rome's leafy, green Monteverde district, Giorgia Cuomo tells me she cares deeply about these issues.
GIORGIA CUOMO: (Speaking Italian).
SHERLOCK: Working in central Rome, she says, she's commuted alongside immigrants, people who've been in Italy, paying their taxes for years without representation.
CUOMO: (Speaking Italian).
SHERLOCK: "I've understood many realities," she says, "and have come to my own decision on the argument." But in the end, Cuomo was in the minority of Italians who chose to take part in this referendum. As polls closed, only 30% of eligible voters had participated, far below the 50% required for the referendum to be upheld. One reason for this was that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her right-wing government had done their best to kill the referendum.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER GIORGIA MELONI: (Speaking Italian).
SHERLOCK: Here Meloni told reporters she would visit a polling station out of respect for the process, and she did that, but then didn't actually vote. The speaker of the Senate and member of the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, Ignazio della Russa (ph), went even further, campaigning in the run-up to the referendum for party supporters to just stay home. Opposition parties accuse the government of betraying a civic duty.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LANDINI: (Speaking Italian).
SHERLOCK: And Maurizio Landini, from Italy's trade union, called it an example of Italy's democracy in crisis. But government leaders remain steadfast, celebrating the failure of the referendum. Economists in Italy say relaxing citizenship laws could help address the problems caused by Italy's aging society and woefully low birth rate. But Meloni's government has campaigned on reducing the number of foreign migrants in Italy and often sees Italian identity as intimately linked with blood ancestry. And so for now, the laws remain unchanged.
Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Rome.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
