Turnout was well below required 50 per cent plus one threshold, rendering result of two-day referendum invalid.
An Italian referendum on citizenship and labour reform failed to reach the required quorum on Monday in a blow for the centre-left and a win for the right-wing government of premier Giorgia Meloni.
The referendum, which centred around whether Italians wanted to ease citizenship rules and reform labour laws, began early on Sunday morning and ended at 15.00 on Monday.
Official data from about half of the polling stations on Monday afternoon revealed a voter turnout of just under 30 per cent, far short of the 50 per cent plus one quorum required to make the result valid.
Voters were asked 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.
Currently, 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 referendum also posed four other questions, championed by the CGIL trade union, including a repeal of the Jobs Act, the labour reform implemented by the Renzi government in 2016, along with a push to provide greater protections for workers.
The result is a setback for the centre-left opposition and trade unions which had campaigned for a Yes vote on all five questions.
However the outcome will be relished by Meloni’s governing coalition which had promoted abstention as a way of scuttling the referendum.
On Sunday, Meloni carried out her plan of showing up at the polling station and refusing to pick up her ballot papers, thereby not contributing to the quorum.
Her tactic, which she announced publicly in the days leading up to the referendum, outraged the opposition, with Partito Democratico leader Elly Schlein accusing her of “making a fool” of the Italian people.
Meloni also stated that she was “totally against” halving the time required to obtain citizenship, hailing Italy’s current citizenship legislation as “excellent” and “very open”.
“The opposition wanted to turn the referendum into a vote on the Meloni government” – cabinet undersecretary Giovanbattista Fazzolari saaid on Monday – “The response is very clear: the government emerges from this stronger and the opposition is weaker”.
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