On January 20, 2025, the Constitutional Court declared admissible the following requests for abrogative referendum:

• Italian citizenship: reduction from 10 to 5 years of the legal residence period in Italy required for non-EU adults to apply for Italian citizenship;
• Employment contract with increasing protections: regulation of unlawful dismissals;
• Small businesses: dismissals and related compensation;
• Fixed-term employment contracts: partial repeal of rules regarding maximum duration and conditions for extensions and renewals;
• Joint liability in subcontracting: exclusion of joint liability for the client, contractor, and subcontractor for workplace accidents suffered by employees of subcontracting companies.

However, the abrogative referendum on Law No. 86 of June 26, 2024, concerning the differentiated autonomy of ordinary-statute Regions, was declared inadmissible. According to the Court, the subject and purpose of the referendum were not sufficiently clear.

Among the referendum proposals examined by the Court, the one on Italian citizenship has attracted significant public attention. Currently, citizenship recognition is governed by Law No. 91/1992, which states that: Citizenship is granted at birth to those with at least one Italian parent or to those born in Italy to unknown or stateless parents. In Italy, jus soli does not apply, meaning that being born on Italian soil to foreign parents does not automatically confer Italian citizenship.

According to Article 9, paragraph 1, letter f) of the Citizenship Law, a non-EU foreigner can apply for citizenship only after 10 years of uninterrupted residence in Italy.

The referendum question seeks to repeal certain provisions of the law, reducing the required residency period from 10 to 5 years for citizens of non-EU states. Currently, the 5-year term applies only to foreigners adopted by an Italian citizen (calculated from the adoption date), while all others must meet the 10-year requirement. The 4-year residency requirement for EU citizens would remain unchanged.

Today, people who are born, raised, work, and live in Italy but do not have Italian citizenship face greater difficulties in accessing essential services, public job competitions, as well as being required to bear administrative costs that Italian citizens do not. With these changes, Italian law would align with the standards of most European countries.