Meloni doubles down on her choice to abstain from voting.
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has reiterated her plan to show up at the polling station but abstain from voting in the five referendums being held in Italy on 8 and 9 June.
The series of referendums, or referenda, includes four questions related to labour reform as well as a contentious vote on whether the waiting time for non-EU citizens to become eligible to apply for Italian citizenship via residency should be cut from the current 10 years down to five.
Meloni’s right-wing coalition government is particularly against the citizenship referendum, which was granted after an online petition surpassed its aim of half a million signatures.
The government has largely promoted abstention as a way to prevent the voter turnout or “quorum” from reaching 50 per cent plus one, the minimum percentage required to make the referendum result valid.
Meloni on Thursday evening said she was “totally against halving the time for citizenship”, hailing Italy’s current citizenship legislation as “excellent” and “very open”.
“I will not contribute to the referendum reducing the term for granting citizenship to foreigners in Italy to five years”, Meloni said during an event in Rome, stressing that that abstention was a right for all voters.
On Monday the premier said she planned to go to her voting station for the five referendums but not pick up her ballot paper, meaning she will not contribute to the votes reaching quorum.
Her comments sparked outrage among the centre-left opposition, with the Partito Democratico (PD) leader Elly Schlein accusing her of “making a fool” of the Italian people and confirming that she “wants to scuttle the referendums”.
Meloni expanded on her position on Thursday, asserting that not voting is her right, “it is everyone’s right”, and underlining that she does “not agree with the contents” of the referendums.
She stated that she will go to the polls “because I am a prime minister and I think it is right to give a sign of respect towards the ballot boxes and the referendum institution.”
Under the current citizenship legislation, which dates to 1992, non-EU nationals are required to be legally resident in Italy for 10 years before they can apply for citizenship, and children born in Italy to foreigners cannot apply for citizenship until they turn 18.
The other four referendum questions, promoted by the CGIL trade union, include a push to abolish the Jobs Act, the labour reform implemented by the Renzi government in 2016.
The proposed reforms include restoring stronger protections against unlawful dismissals, removing the cap on compensation for unfair dismissals in small businesses, reintroducing stricter regulations on fixed-term employment contracts, and increasing employer accountability for workplace safety.
Earlier this week the CGIL union condemned a banner displayed opposite its Rome headquarters encouraging “everyone to go the beach on 8-9 June”, along with the message “Fuck CGIL”.
On Thursday the union filed a complaint with police over a social media post showing a sniper aiming a gun with the message: “You’re going to vote? I see you..”
The union published a screenshot of the image, obscuring the individual’s name but displaying their profile picture: the logo of Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia party.
“Thousands of hate-filled comments have been written in these months of campaign by supporters of right-wing political formations against the CGIL”, the union wrote in a statement, condemning the “climate of intimidation” ahead of the referendums.
Photo credit: Marco Iacobucci Epp / Shutterstock.com.
