Italy Citizenship Referendum Polarises Country star-news.press/wp

Sonny ovumati was born in Rome and lived in Italy all his life, but the country called home does not recognize him as his own.

The same, Sonny is Nigerian, like a passport, and a 39-year-old was only welcome only as his latest permit.

“I was born here. I will live here. I will die here,” the dancer and activist tell me in what he calls “Macaroni” Italian-English under Palm.

“But, but there is no citizenship … rejected from your country. And I don’t think that’s the feeling we should have.”

That is why Sonny and the second campaign for “to” vote in the National Referendum on Sunday and Monday who proposes to halve the time required to submit an application for Italian citizenship.

Cutting from 10 years to five would bring this country in accordance with most others in Europe.

Giorgia Meloni, Italian prime minister for claims, announced that boycotting will vote, the proclamation of the Law on Citizenship already “excellent” and “very openly”.

The other parties of the Federation invite them to the Italians to go to the beach instead of the polling station.

Sonny will not participate. No citizenship has no right to vote.

The question of who must be Italian is sensitive.

A large number of migrants and refugees arrive in the country each year it helped through the Mediterranean from North Africa, smuggling gangs.

Melona’s populist government has made a great service to reduce the number of arrivals.

But this referendum is focused on those who have legally traveled to work in the country with rapidly reduced and aging population.

The goal is limited: to accelerate the process to obtain citizenship, do not facilitate strict criteria.

“Knowing the Italian language, not to have criminal charges, continuous residence and ceter – all different requirements remain the same,” explains Carla Taibi Liberal Party more Europe, one of several Backer referendums.

The reform would affect the long-term sides of the inhabitants already employed in Italy: from those on the factory production lines in the north to those of retirees in Plush Roman neighborhoods.

Their children at the age of 18 would also have naturalized.

Up to 1.4 million people could qualify for citizenship immediately, and some estimates ranging in the range.

“These people live in Italy, study and work and contribute. This is about changing perception about them, so they are no longer foreigners – but Italian”.

The reform would also have practical implications.

As non-partial, Sonny can’t apply for a job in the public sector, and even fought to get a driver’s license.

When he is reserved for the Hit Reality TV show Fame Iceland last year, he ended up to arrive two weeks late on Honduras, because he had so much trouble with the right paper.

Long Meloni completely ignored the referendum.

Italian public ownership of the media, leading the close Meloni ally, also paid by aspiring attention to the voting.

There is no material campaign “No”, which makes it difficult to have a balanced discussion.

But the real reason seems strategic: for a referendum to be valid, more than half of all voters are needed.

“They do not want to raise awareness of the importance of the referendum,” explains the professor at the University of Luis in Rome. “It’s rationally, to ensure that 50% of the threshold will not be achieved.”

The Prime Minister eventually announced that it would appear at the polling station “to show respect for the voter framework” – but refuse to vote.

“When you disagree, you also have the ability to restrain,” Meloni told TV chat this week, after critics accused her of disrespecting democracy.

Italian citizenship system was “excellent”, claiming, but giving citizenship more foreign citizens from most countries in Europe: 217.000 last year, according to the National Statistics Agency, Istat.

But about 30,000 of them were Argentina with Italian origin on the other side of the world, unlikely even to visit.

Meanwhile, Melonin Coalition Partner, Roberto Vanaccmi from the Far Real League, accused them behind the referendum “selling our citizenship and deleting our identity”.

I ask Sonny, why he thinks his own request for citizenship is more than two decades.

“Racism is,” replied immediately.

At one point, his file is completely lost, and now it was said that his case is “in progress”.

“We have ministers talking about white overseas – racial replacement of Italy”, activist recalls comments from 2023. year by the Minister of Agriculture from Melonia’s own entertainment.

“They don’t want black immigration and we know that. I was born here 39 years ago, so I know what I say.”

It is the accusation that the Prime Minister denied several times.

Insaf Dimassi defines himself as “Italian without citizenship”.

“Italy let me grow up and become a person in which I am today, so he is not seen as a citizen extremely painful and frustrating,” explains from the northern town of Bologna where he is studying for a doctorate.

Father Insaf traveled to Italy to work when she was a baby, and she and her mother then joined. Her parents finally received Italian citizenship 20 days after the Insaf has turned 18. This meant to be signed for himself, including prove stable income.

Insaf decided to study instead.

“I arrived here in nine months, and maybe in 33 or 34 – if everything is well – I can finally be an Italian citizen,” she says, annoyed.

He remembers exactly when the importance of her “outsider” of the status hit the Chamber: it was when asked to run for the elections together with the mayor’s candidate in his hometown.

When she shared news with her parents, full excitement, they had to remind her that she was not Italian and was not eligible.

“They say that the issue of the meritocracy be a citizen, that you have to earn. But more than being alone, what do I have to show?” Insaf wants to know.

“It is not permitted to vote or be represented, is invisible.”

In the eve of the referendum, the students in Rome wrote a call to the polls on the cobblestones of the city square.

“Vote” Yes “8. and 9. June),” They rewritten in the giant letters of the cardboard.

With a government boycott and such weak publicity, the chances of hitting 50% of the exhaust threshold look slender.

But Sonny claims that this voice is just the beginning.

“Even if they vote” No, “we’ll stay here – and think about the next step,” he says. “We have to start talking about the place of our community in this country.”

Additional reporting Giulia Tommasi