Italian citizenship referendum is invalid after low turnout

A referendum has been announced in Italy on the rules of citizenship and the promotion of the rights of workers is invalid.

About 30 % of the voters – less than the 50 % threshold required to make voting binding – in the poll, which started on Sunday and ran until 15:00 (14:00 GMT) on Monday.

The polls include five questions covering different issues, including a proposal to raise the length of time that the individual must half in Italy before he can apply for citizenship from 10 to five years.

The referendum started by the citizens ’initiative and with the support of civil society groups and unions, all of whom carried out a campaign to vote yes.

For them, the result – which has witnessed low turnout levels of 22 % in areas such as Sicily and Kalabria – will be a blow.

The arrival at the threshold of 50 % has always been a conflict – not the least of which is because the Italian government, led by the hard right -wing Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, has largely ignored the referendum or frustration actively from voting.

“Whether it is just higher than 30 % or just less than 30 %, this is a low number, less than the expectations and goals set by the promoters,” Lorenzo Brigliasco, founder of the political polling company, told iTaly Skytg24.

Last week, Meloni announced that it would boycott the vote, declaring the current citizenship law in Italy as “excellent” and “very open”. She visited a polling station in Rome on Sunday, but she did not vote.

But activists have argued that waiting for 10 years to apply for citizenship was very long, and that reducing the requirements of five years would bring Italy with many of its European neighbors.

Shortly after the polls were closed, the Meloni Brothers Party in Italy (FDI) posted a picture of opposition leaders on Instagram with the explanatory name: “I lost!”

“The only real goal of this referendum is to overthrow the Meloni government. In the end, although the Italians overthrew you,” read the post.

Pen Becireno of the Democratic Opposition Party (PD) said that the referendum was “a deep, dangerous and and can be avoided,” and called for failure to reach a 50 % threshold “a huge gift for Gigeria Meloni and right.”

Half a million signatures are required to summon a referendum in Italy. However, there are now calls to increase this threshold to reduce the number of sounds that have been set for the public.

“We have spent a lot of money in sending … millions of polling cards abroad to vote, and they were lost,” said Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Monday.

About half of the 78 referendums held in Italy since World War II have attracted enough voices to make them binding.

The first one, which was held on June 2, 1946, witnessed 89 % of the Italians going to the polls and more than half of these votes to replace the property with a republic.

In subsequent years, referendums were successfully held on abortion and divorce.

The last referendum to reach the required threshold was a 2011 vote against the water privatization law.