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A referendum in Italy on the relaxation of citizenship rules and to improve the rights of employees was declared invalid.
Around 30% of the voters took part in the survey that started on Sunday and ran on Monday until 3:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. BST) – shortly before the 50% swell.
The ballot contained five questions on various topics, including a proposal to halve the time duration that an individual has to live in Italy before it can apply for citizenship between 10 and five years.
The referendum was initiated by a citizens’ initiative and supported by civil society groups and unions, all of which fought for the yes vote.
For them, the result that recorded the voting level of only 22% in regions such as Sicily and Calabria – as a blow.
The reaching of the 50% threshold would always be a fight – not least because the Italian government, led by the right -wing extremist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, largely ignored the referendum or actively discouraged people from the vote.
“Whether just over 30% or almost 30%, this is a low number, under the expectations and goals that the promoters have determined,” said Lorenzo Pregiasco, the founder of the political polling station Yotrend, Italy’s Skytg24.
Last week Meloni announced that she would boycott the vote and declared the existing citizenship law of Italy as “excellent” and “very open”. She visited a polling station in Rome on Sunday, but did not vote.
However, activists argued that a 10-year waiting period for the application for citizenship was far too long and that reducing the need to five years of Italy would bring in line with many of its European neighbors.
Shortly after surveys were closed, Melonis Brothers of Italy (FDI) PARTY published a picture of opposition leaders with the heading: “You have lost!”
“The only real goal of this referendum was to overthrow the government of Meloni. In the end they overthrown the Italians,” was the mail.
Pina Picierno of the opposition Democratic Party (PD) said that the referendum was a “deep, serious and avoidable defeat” and described the failure to achieve 50% neck as a “huge gift to Giorgia Meloni and the right”.
Half a million signatures are required to call a referendum in Italy. However, there are now demands that this threshold is increased to reduce the number of votes provided for the public.
“We spent a lot of money to … send millions of ballot papers abroad for Italian [expats] To vote and they were wasted, “said Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Monday.
Only about half of the 78 referenders who have been taking place in Italy since the Second World War have attracted enough voices to do them too binding.
In the first on June 2, 1946, 89% of Italians found the surveys and a little more than half of these voices to replace the monarchy with a republic.
In later years, referenders about abortion and divorce were also successfully held.
The last referendum to achieve the necessary threshold was a votes from the law on 2011 against a water services.