On June 8 and 9, Italians were asked to vote on five referendum questions, each pushed by the political left. Four aimed to tighten labor protections, such as making it easier to reinstate fired workers and restricting the use of fixed-term contracts. The fifth proposed a dramatic shift in the meaning of Italian citizenship, reducing the residency requirement from 10 years to five for non-EU citizens with no Italian ancestry.
All five measures failed — not because a majority voted “no,” but because most people didn’t vote at all.
Under Italian law, a referendum must get over 50 percent turnout to be valid. A lower turnout means results are void regardless of the number of “yes” votes. Since Italy’s postwar constitution established this rule, abstention has become the preferred strategy for defeating referenda. In fact, most referenda have been stopped due to people staying home.
That’s exactly what happened here. National turnout came in at just over 30 percent, far short of the required threshold. This wasn’t apathy or confusion. It was a deliberate strategy, especially on the political right and center, whose leaders urged supporters to stay home. While most observers expected turnout to fall short, few predicted how low it would be.
As Lorenzo Pregliasco of YouTrend told SkyTG24, “This is a low figure, below the expectations and targets set by the promoters.” The Left had hoped to spark a movement. Instead, it ran into a wall of calculated silence.
Credit Image: © Alessandro Fucarini/IPA via ZUMA Press
The small segment of the electorate that did show up was overwhelmingly left-leaning — those most likely to support the reforms. And for the four labor-related questions, they did: Each got between 85.8 percent and 87.6 percent of votes.
But the citizenship measure collapsed, getting just 65.3 percent. This 20-percent difference is the real story.
Even within the most favorable voting pool, one-third of participants refused to support easing access to citizenship. These weren’t center-right skeptics. These were staunch leftists who showed up to strengthen labor protections, and voted near unanimously.
The measure would have immediately made around 2.5 million more foreigners eligible for citizenship, including many long-term non-European residents with no cultural, ethnic, or ancestral ties to Italy. It would have dramatically accelerated a demographic and cultural shift already underway, and voters knew it.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni herself went to the polls but declined to vote, signaling that abstention, not outright opposition, was the preferred tactic. In Italy, this isn’t cowardice. It’s a proven veto, and it worked as intended.
In killing this initiative, Italians showed they’re paying attention. Western Europe embraced mass immigration and easy naturalization, assuming assimilation would follow. Instead, it imported parallel societies, cultural fragmentation, and long-term instability. The Italian public will not support dissolving their national identity through naturalization gimmicks.
Italy still has the legal and institutional tools to preserve its cultural and ethnic continuity, and people just used one. Now, the burden shifts to the Meloni government. If it continues to stall on meaningful reform of citizenship, migration, and national cohesion, it won’t be because it lacks support — but because it lacks will.
The post Italy Just Killed a Bad Citizenship Law the Italian Way appeared first on American Renaissance.
American Renaissance
