The House of Representatives of Italy passed on Tuesday (20) the law that restricts the right to Italian citizenship for offspring. The new rule, which has been in place since March, had to pass the house to become a definitive law. With the final processing in the Italian legislature, the change excludes thousands of Brazilians from the process of citizenship recognition.
It was already expected to expect the decree approved by the House, as the government of the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Fratelli d’Italia, holds a majority. “There are requests for citizenship linked to an ancestor who arrived in Brazil in the 1850s of the sixth generation. With this decree, we end anomalous practices, when not illegitimate, who want to give citizenship to those who have nothing to do with Italy,” said Giovanni Maioirano of the same party as Meloni.
The text, and has not undergone new changes in the House, determines that only children and grandchildren of Italians will be entitled to citizenship by sanguinis jus (right to blood), and only specific conditions are fulfilled:
- The direct ascendant (father, mother, grandfather or grandmother) must have been born in Italy; or
- The ascendant must have lived in Italy for at least two consecutive years before the birth of his son or grandson and possess or possessed exclusively Italian citizenship.
In practice, the new rule excludes descendants of Italians who have double citizenship, such as Italo-Brazilian, of the transmission of law to following generations. The decree only affects requests made from March 28. Proceedings filed before that date will not be impacted, according to the government and experts.
With about 30 million Italian descendants in Brazil, the measure has direct repercussions. In 2023 alone, the Italian consulates recorded up to 38,000 citizenship recognitions in Brazil. The temporary suspension of consulates scheduling also affects the progress of new processes, which should now be sent directly to Italian justice.
Contestation
Despite the approval, jurists indicate that the norm may be contested in the Supreme Court, due to alleged violations of the Italian Constitution, such as retroactivity and discrimination between citizens with double nationality.
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The change marks a turn in Italian legislation, which for more than 30 years has recognized the right to citizenship without generation limit. With the new law, the country goes from one of the broader legislation in the world to one of the most restrictive in this regard.
