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2025 Italian Abrogative Referendums

ShangXian — 2 weeks ago

I know not many Italian people here follow me, but to any Italian person coming across this blog this blog about 2025 Abrogative Referendums might help to better understand how situation is since I haven't noticed a real education in the government official channels here (even that disgusting fascist Ignazio La Russa even wants to make an anti-referendum campaign so....). I called that bastard a fascist because he is the first politician with a neo-fascist background to hold the position of President of the Senate, the second highest-ranking office of the Italian Republic. I never misuse this term, I know when to really use it.

Anyway, back to the main topic.

What are these abrogative referendums about?

They are referendums that will be held on Sunday 8 and Monday 9 June, at the same time as the second round of the local elections, and will concern changes to the law on the acquisition of Italian citizenship for foreign residents and the repeal of some provisions on employment, three of which were originally introduced by the Jobs Act in 2016 (1). In the 2025 abrogative referendum, people will be able to answer with a “Yes” or a “No” to five questions, expressed in the form: “Do you want to repeal? etc.”. Therefore, if you want to change the current regulation, you will have to cross out Yes; if, instead, you prefer to keep the current rules, without any changes, you will opt for No.

The referendum question on the request for Italian citizenship was initially promoted by the secretary of More Europe Riccardo Magi as well as by the parties Possibile, Italian Socialist Party, Italian Radicals and Communist Refoundation Party and numerous civil society associations, with a collection of signatures, also carried out digitally, which collected more than 637,000 signatures.

Depending on their residence, each voter will receive one or more ballots, each of a different color to distinguish the five questions. Voting takes place in the municipality of residence, but exceptions are made for those who are temporarily elsewhere.

Those who can vote are:

those who have turned 18 by June 8, 2025
those who are registered on the Italian electoral rolls
those who present a valid identity document and the electoral card at the polling station

All five questions were declared admissible by the Constitutional Court during the council chamber of 20 January 2025. For the result to be valid, at least 50% of eligible voters have to turnout with at least 50% of participants approving (2).

What about those who live in another municipality?

The real news this year concerns voters away from home, those who have been living in another municipality for at least three months for study, work or medical reasons. For the first time, it will be possible to vote without returning to the municipality of residence.

Here what you have to do:

you must apply by May 5, 2025 (it can be revoked by May 14)
use the form available online, to be downloaded from the website of the Ministry of the Interior
the application can be submitted in person or by dispensation

You must send as attachment:

copy of ID card
copy of personal voter card
copy of certification or documentation demonstrating the reason for travel (study, work or health)

Themes of the referendum include:

reinstatement for workers dismissed without just cause in companies with more than 15 employees
increasing the decision-making power of judges in compensation for unfair dismissals in small businesses
the obligation to provide reasons for fixed-term contracts
shared responsibility for worker safety in contracts
the possibility for non-EU foreigners to apply for citizenship after 5 years of residence instead of 10

What are the questions?

Well, first the physical look of ballots is this:

I won't use any technical term because I want the core concept to be as clear as possible. You will notice though how questions are formulated and how some of these are a bit difficult to really understand (considering this shitty government I won't rule out an intention to make them difficult to understand on purpose, but that's just me so don't take too seriously what I said). The only technical aspect you will see are only the questions translated into English, but the nature and implication of a favourable answer to the question will be explained in a more simple manner. It's important to be educated but it's even be more important to have clear information in order to avoid misinformation.

First question

Do you want the repeal of Legislative Decree no. 23 of 4 March 2015, containing “Provisions regarding permanent employment contracts with increasing protections, in implementation of Law no. 183 of 10 December 2014” in its entirety?

Title: Employment contract with increasing protections – regulation of unlawful dismissals: Repeal

This point concerns those who work in companies with more than 15 employees and were hired after March 7, 2015. Currently, in terms of dismissal, the law provides that if a worker was hired after March 7, 2015 and is fired, he/she is not entitled to return to work even if the judge has established that the dismissal is, in fact, unjustified. What you are entitled to is only financial compensation between 6 and 36 months of salary. This referendum aims to give the possibility of being reinstated following a dismissal that occurred without just cause (Article 18 with some modification during Fornero Law).

Second question

Do you want the repeal of Article 8 of Law No. 604 of 15 July 1966, containing “Rules on individual dismissals”, as replaced by Article 2, paragraph 3, of Law No. 108 of 11 May 1990, limited to the words: “between one”, the words “and a maximum of 6” and the words “The maximum amount of the aforementioned compensation may be increased up to 10 months’ salary for employees with seniority of more than ten years and up to 14 months’ salary for employees with seniority of more than twenty years, if employed by an employer who employs more than fifteen employees.”?

Title: Small Businesses - Layoffs and related compensation: partial repeal

It concerns small businesses (those with fewer than 16 employees). Today, in the event of unfair dismissal, the maximum compensation is six months' salary. The purpose of the referendum is to have the judge decide the amount of compensation. This referendum wants to eliminate this six-month “ceiling”, thus leaving it up to the judge to decide the amount of compensation that he deems fairest, considering various factors such as seniority, size of the company, and the worker’s family burdens. This amount, therefore, may also be higher than six months’ salary.

Third question

Do you want the repeal of Article 19 of Legislative Decree No. 81 of 15 June 2015, containing “Organic discipline of employment contracts and revision of the regulations on duties, pursuant to Article 1, paragraph 7, of Law No. 183 of 10 December 2014”, paragraph 1, limited to the words “not exceeding twelve months. The contract may have a longer duration, but in any case”, the words “in the presence of at least one of the following conditions”, the words “in the absence of the provisions referred to in letter a), in the collective agreements applied in the company, and in any case by 31 December 2024, for technical, organizational and production needs identified by the parties;” and the words “b bis)”; paragraph 1-bis, limited to the words “lasting more than twelve months” and the words “from the date of exceeding the twelve-month term”; paragraph 4, limited to the words “in case of renewal,” and to the words “only when the overall term exceeds twelve months”; Article 21, paragraph 01, limited to the words “freely in the first twelve months and, subsequently,”?

Title: Partial repeal of provisions on the application of a term to subordinate employment contracts, maximum duration and conditions for extensions and renewals

Currently, employers can freely stipulate subordinate employment contracts if they have a duration of less than 12 months. After 12 months, it is possible to extend such a contract, in any case up to 24 months, only if a “justifying reason” is added, i.e. a written justification of the reason why a fixed-term contract is used and not an indefinite one. Let's take an example (for example a company produces paper napkins in Veneto and due to the Winter Olympics it receives massive orders, so it can stipulate subordinate employment contracts even exceeding the threshold of 12 months using this non-ordinary increase in production as a justifying reason). With "Yes", the aim is to introduce the obligation of written justification for all fixed-term contracts: not only, therefore, for those that exceed twelve months. The idea behind this change is that reducing, or at least tightening, the use of fixed-term contracts can reduce precariousness and make work more stable.

Fourth question

Do you want the repeal of art. 26, paragraph 4, of Legislative Decree no. 81 of 9 April 2008, containing “Implementation of Article 1 of Law no. 123 of 3 August 2007, regarding the protection of health and safety in the workplace” as amended by art. 16 of Legislative Decree no. 106 of 3 August 2009, by art. 32 of Legislative Decree no. 69 of 21 June 2013, converted with amendments by Law no. 98 of 9 August 2013, as well as by art. 13 of Legislative Decree no. 146 of 21 October 2021, converted with amendments by Law no. 215, limited to the words “The provisions of this paragraph do not apply to damages resulting from specific risks inherent in the activity of contracting or subcontracting companies.”

Title: Exclusion of joint liability of the client, the contractor and the subcontractor for injuries suffered by the employee of a contracting or subcontracting company, as a consequence of the specific risks inherent in the activity of the contracting or subcontracting companies: Repeal

With "Yes", we want to extend the liability for accidents from specific risks to the contracting entity. The injured worker could thus request payment of compensation not only from his employer (the construction company) but also from the entity for which the work or service is being performed. The goal is that, in the event of an accident, liability falls not only on the contracting company, but also on the company that chose it.

Fifth question

Do you want to repeal art. 9, paragraph 1, letter b), limited to the words "adopted by an Italian citizen" and "subsequent to the adoption"; as well as letter f), containing the following provision: "f) to a foreigner who has resided legally for at least ten years in the territory of the Republic", of law 5 February 1992, n. 91, containing new rules on citizenship"?

Title: Italian citizenship: halving from 10 to 5 years of the time of legal residence in Italy of the non-EU adult foreigner for the request for the granting of Italian citizenship

It concerns Italian citizenship for foreigners. Currently, if a foreigner wants to obtain Italian citizenship he must reside legally in Italy for at least 10 years. With this referendum, voting "Yes", the years of residence in Italy for foreigners who want to obtain Italian citizenship would go from 10 to 5. There is more: since in Italy parents pass on citizenship to their minor children, even the children of foreigners who have been resident for 5 years would become Italian citizens. There could therefore be 2.5 million new Italian citizens, pretty cool, huh?

Closing thoughts

Well, now that I "quickly" explained these questions, I can share my personal thoughts: it's important going to vote (always, not only for referendums) as duty and right, and for this referendum it's important to vote "Yes" to all five questions in order to remove those craps from Jobs Act, thank you, Renzi, now go fuck yourself :)

Last but not least it's interesting to note the main political parties' positions about this referendum: