The participation rate of Italian citizens in the five referendums concerning labor rights and citizenship for foreigners was below 30%, according to current data.
As a result, the referendums are deemed invalid, since the law requires a minimum of 50%+1 of eligible voters to participate for the results to count.
In a social media post, Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s party emphasized, “The primary objective of this referendum was to undermine the government. Ultimately, however, Italians showed their preference for the opposition’s downfall.”
Indeed, the government’s main focus was to weaken the opposition.
It’s important to note that the conservative ruling coalition favored voter abstention, while the main opposition parties—including the Democratic Party, Five Stars, and the Italian Left with Ecologists—advocated for a “yes” vote in the referendums.
Italian Foreign Minister and Forza Italia leader, Antonio Tajani, announced that the governing majority plans to propose increasing the required number of signatures for initiating a referendum. Currently, the threshold is set at 500,000 signatures.
The Italian Radicals and the party “More Europe,” which supported the citizenship referendum, asserted that “organized abstention prevailed, influenced by a lack of adequate information and a natural tendency to abstain.”
Concerning the four referendums aimed at enhancing labor rights, those who voted at the polls expressed support with “yes” responses ranging from 85% to 88%. For the referendum proposing to reduce the required period for granting Italian citizenship to foreign residents from ten years to five years, 62% of voters favorably voted.
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