A referendum in Italy was intended to facilitate naturalization and revoke the liberalization measures of the labor market fell short this June 9, very few people who voted after the call of the Giorgia Meloni government to refrain.
According to the counting that is still in progress, a little more than 30% of the voters went to the polls this Sunday and this Monday, when it took more than 50% to take into account the result of the ballot.
The extreme right in power since 2022
Many members of the ultra conservative government had asked their supporters to refrain from voting to prevent the 50%threshold from being reached.
It was significantly proposed within the framework of this referendum supported by NGOs and opposition parties to reduce the duration of ten to five years during which a non -European resident, without a marriage or blood link with Italy, must have lived in this country before asking for nationality.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, head of the Fratelli Party of Italy (FDI, extreme right), who came to power in 2022 in an antimigrants program, even if his government has increased the number of work visas, he said it was “absolutely against” this measure.
“A great defeat for a left that no longer has any idea or credibility and that does not even manage to mobilize its own voters,” he reacted on X on X Vice President Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Lega Antimigrant Party.
Referendum on labor law
The Italians were also called to decide on a proposal to abolish four laws for liberalization of the labor market, a consultation sought by the main union confederation, the CGIL (left), which had collected the 500,000 firms necessary for the organization of the vote.
This union hoped to restore protection measures against precarious contracts, layoffs and accidents at work that had been abolished in the past.
About 85% of the Italians who went to the polls “Yes” to all questions about work and 64% approved the naturalization proposal.
The main opposition party, the Democratic Party (center on the left), supported the proposals presented to the referendum although it adopted, when it was in power, several of the measures whose suppression was proposed, some of which were implemented by the former head of the Government Matteo Renzi.
For the general secretary of CGIL Maurizio Landini, very strong abstention illustrates an “obvious democratic crisis” in Italy. However, he promised to “continue (…) this battle, using all the means at our disposal.”
Source: BFM TV
