Overview

• Voters will decide on four labor-law repeal measures and a referendum to halve the residency requirement for citizenship from ten to five years.
• Center-right parties, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, are promoting “active abstention” by attending polls without taking ballots to deny the quorum.
• The center-left coalition, with leaders like Elly Schlein and union chief Maurizio Landini, is mounting a final push to maximize voter participation.
• The Italian bishops’ conference has labelled abstention a “deliberate impotence” and appealed to citizens’ moral duty to vote.
• Analysts warn that failure to reach the 50%+1 quorum would invalidate the referendums; a successful citizenship measure could affect up to 2.5 million extra-EU residents and reshape center-left alliances.