Italy to discuss citizenship law reform
Citizenship law reform is back in the agenda in Italy. On October 18, two leading politicians, Gianfranco Fini (President of the Chamber of Deputies, the Parliament’s lower chamber, and prominent figure of the governing party Popolo della Libertà/People of Liberty, PdL) and Massimo D’Alema of the Democratic Party (PD, the main opposition party) met in Asolo, a small town in Northern Italy, to discuss nationality law reform. They identified three areas in urgent need of reform: citizenship for children of migrants to be granted at the end of attending an Italian primary school, Islamic religious instruction in Italian public schools, and the right for foreign residents from non-EU countries to vote in local elections. The meeting was organized by two of the main Italian think tanks, Fini’s Fondazione Fare Futuro and D’Alema’s Italiani Europei. But the reform is supported by a much broader coalition, including the centrist party Unione dei Cristiani Democratici/Union of Christian Democrats (UDC).