Italy's referendum on citizenship and labour laws fails due to low turnout

Italy's referendum on citizenship and labour laws failed on Monday, due to low voter turnout.

Italians headed to the polls over two days to vote on five proposals to provide more job protections, and to ease access to citizenship for children born in Italy to foreigners. 

The vote needed to reach a 50% plus one participation threshold to be legally validated, but official data on Monday evening showed that turnout hovered around only 30% of eligible voters. 

The result marked a victory for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her right-wing allies, who encouraged their supporters to boycott the vote. 

Meloni herself entered a polling station in Rome but did not cast a ballot. 

The Prime Minister’s far-right Brothers of Italy party celebrated the referendum’s failure and claimed its only goal was to bring down the government. 

“In the end, it was the Italians who brought you down", the party said on social media.

The result is a heavy blow for the centre-left opposition, and for the coalition of labour unions and civil society groups that organised the referendum. 

“We knew it wouldn’t be a walk in the park", said Maurizio Landini, leader of the CGIL trade union that was behind the initiative. “There is an obvious crisis of democracy and participation.”

A key referendum measure aimed to reduce the period of residence to apply for Italian citizenship by naturalisation from 10 to 5 years. 

If passed, the new rules would have affected about 2.5 million foreign nationals. 

Supporters said the reform would have brought Italy’s citizenship law in line with many other European countries, including France and Germany.

Campaigners also said it would have allowed faster access to civil and political rights, such as the right to vote, eligibility for public employment and freedom of movement within the EU.

Other referendum questions sought to reverse labour market liberalisations, and to address the issue of security at work.

Activists and opposition parties denounced the overall lack of public debate on the proposals. 

Opinion polls published mid-May showed that only 46% of Italians were aware of the issues driving the referendum. 

Italy’s AGCOM communications authority lodged a complaint in May against RAI state television and other broadcasters over a lack of adequate and balanced coverage.