Italy’s left pushes to speed up citizenship reform bill

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's party pushed on Thursday for the Senate to pick up its heels over a citizenship reform bill which would allow children born in the country to foreign parents to become citizens.

Published: 14 October 2016 13:16 CEST

Italy's left pushes to speed up citizenship reform bill

Protestors dressed as ghosts to show how they feel 'invisible'. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) urged the upper house of parliament to get on with debating the draft law, which was given the green light by the lower house last year but has been sat on by the Senate since then.

“I believe that recognizing the rights of those born in Italy and schooled here to become citizens is a civic requirement that cannot be put off,” said Senate party leader Anna Finocchiaro.

At the moment, Italian-born children with foreign parents are not allowed to apply for citizenship until they are 18.

A year to the day after its adoption by the lower house, supporters of the bill organized a rally near the Senate, holding white sheets over their heads to resemble ghosts, to remind lawmakers of the difficulties faced by those raised in the country who feel Italian but are not.

PD senator Doris Lo Moro admitted process had been slowed by some 8,000 amendments tabled mainly by the anti-immigrant Northern League party.

Under the new bill, the children in question would be able to obtain citizenship if a parent requested it and had a residence permit.

The measure would also extend to children born abroad but resident in Italy for at least six years and schooled here for at least five.

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The strike comes after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama — who is close to Meloni — called a top RAI editor to complain about a television report into Italy’s controversial migration deal with his country.

The Usigrai trade union called the strike from May 6 to May 7 saying talks with management had failed to address their concerns.

It cited numerous issues, including staff shortages and contract issues, but in first place was “the suffocating control over journalistic work, with the attempt to reduce RAI to a megaphone for the government”.

It had already used that phrase to object to what critics say is the increasing influence over RAI by figures close to Prime Minister Meloni, who leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II.

However, another union of RAI journalists, Unirai, said they would not join what they called a “political” strike, defending the return to “pluralism” at the broadcaster.

Funded in part by a licence fee and with top managers long chosen by politicians, RAI’s independence has always been an issue of debate.

But the arrival in power of Meloni — leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, who formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia — redoubled concerns.

Tensions erupted at the weekend amid accusations RAI censored a speech by a leading writer criticising Meloni ahead of Liberation Day on April 25, when Italians mark the defeat of Fascism and the Nazis at the end of World War II.

Both RAI’s management and Meloni have denied censorship, and the premier posted the text of the monologue on her social media.

In another twist, Albania’s premier confirmed Thursday he called senior RAI editor Paolo Corsini about an TV report on Sunday into Italy’s plans to build two migration processing centres on Albanian territory.

Rama told La Stampa newspaper the report was “biased” and contained “lies” – adding that he had not raised the issue with Meloni.

The Report programme claimed the costs of migrant centres, which are under construction, were already “out of control” and raised questions about criminals benefiting from the project.