The Italian government granted Italian nationality on Saturday, December 14 to Argentine President Javier Milei, currently on an official visit to Rome. If the president, like his sister, are entitled to this naturalization by virtue of their ancestors born in Italy, the speed of the process raises an outcry within the Italian left. Since coming to power, the ultraliberal has become a friend of Giorgia Meloni, the far-right Italian Prime Minister.
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Javier Milei is in Rome to meet the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and participating in a festival organized by his far-right party, Fratelli d’Italia. The two leaders established a close relationship. The speed of granting Italian nationality was strongly supported by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and is based on the 1992 law, based on the right of blood. Javier Milei and his sister Katerina – also his closest political advisor – obtained Italian citizenship, because their grandparents were born in Calabria, reports our correspondent in Rome, Anne Le Nir.
According to the ANSA news agency, their requests had been processed urgently by Rome. But the opposition is especially headstrong against the accelerated procedure. All center-left parties emphasize in particular that many people who are abroad must “ wait years to become Italian by descent “.
The granting of nationality to Milei is a “ insult ” and an act of “ intolerable discrimination against many young people who will only obtain it after many years “, said Riccardo Magi, an MP from the opposition Europa party. The left campaigns to facilitate access to nationality for children born in Italy of foreign parents.
Foreigners must currently live ten years in Italy before they can apply for naturalization, and the approximately 800,000 children born in Italy to foreign parents cannot apply for citizenship before the age of 18.
Opposition parties and human rights organizations like Oxfam want to reduce the residency period from ten years to five, in order to bring Italy in line with countries like United Kingdomthere France and theGermanybut the coalition led by Ms Meloni opposes a relaxation of the rules.
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The opposition is therefore once again demanding a reform of the 1992 law so that Italian nationality is based on land law. “ For millions of Italians without nationality, born in Italy, who grew up in our country, who studied here, who work here, who pay taxes in our country – unlike President Milei – obtaining Italian citizenship is a journey of fighter “, Mr. Magi said in a video posted on social media.
“ Maybe they should take a chainsaw, real or fake, and go ask for the nationality law to be changed », he quipped on the object that has become a symbol of Javier Mileil’s program in Argentina. The far-right president last month gave Giorgia Meloni a statuette of himself wielding a chainsaw. Or a nod to his characteristic gesture during his presidential campaign, where he exhibited an electric chainsaw during his rallies, promising to “ cut » public spending.
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