Why the Ius Soli in Italy smells like an attack on democracy

Controversies on the attempt by the ruling Democratic Party of Italy to change the citizenship law are firing up.

The proposed law would give the Italian citizenship to newborns whose at least one parent has been residing in Italy for 5 years. Adding to this, underage foreigns who have studied at least 5 years in Italy and completed a school cycle could also obtainain the citizenship. According to supporters, this law is a question of ‘’civility’’ and would help integration. Critics point out that many of the Islamic terrorists in Europe in the last few years have European citizenships and have studied in Europe, yet none of that made them loyal to the community listed on their identification documents and its values.

First of all, we tried to verify this last claim: from January 2015 until today there have been 13 attacks by Islamic terrorists in Europe, 30 perpetrators were identified, 20 had European citizenships and of them, 18 were from countries with a Ius Soli citizenship law (France, UK, Belgium, Sweden) while only 2 were from countries without it (Italy and Denmark). 60% of the Islamic terrorists in Europe comes from countries with a Ius Soli type of law. Alleged more ‘’civil’’ countries have instead signficantly bigger problems in terms of integration and cohestistance between different religions.

Why is the Democratic Party pushing for this change then? Because it needs the youth vote, but the youth does not vote for the Democratic Party.PD at the moment polls around 25-30%, but when it comes to the age segment 18-45, it drops to 15%, while rival Movimento 5 Stelle polls at 40%.¹⁾I Cinque Stelle alla conquista dei giovani elettori delusi da Renzi, Linkiesta 2017-03-17.

It isn’t surprising. PD led governments have been effectively waging an economic war against the Italian youth, replacing monetary retribution with vouchers; the attitude of PD towards the European Union and the world of the high finance has been servile, combined with the total inability to create jobs and the sky high youth unemployment, with the Italian youth giving up on the job market,²⁾I giovani che rinunciano a cercare un lavoro in Italia sono il doppio che nella media Ue, Il Sole 24ore, 2016-07-14. all factors that make the electoral preferences of young Italians look elsewhere.

If the Italian youth won’t vote PD, then the solution for the latter is to create ‘’new Italians’’ that would be less demanding politically and economically, and here’s where the Ius Soli comes to play: proponents estimates that it would create 800’000 new Italians, ready to vote PD to thank them. ³⁾Ius soli, al via al Senato lʼiter del ddl che darà cittadinanza a 800mila stranieri, tgcom24 2017-06-15. After the economic war, here comes the ethnic replacement.

Dishonesty doesn’t stop there. Should Italians decide to call for an abrogative referendum on the law, it wouldn’t be possible before 2 years. Referendum rules in fact forbid holding one in the 12 months before and 6 months after an election, which right now is expected for the first part of 2018. Also, referendum requests should be submitted before the 30th of September of each solar year. In conclusion, if elections happened in March 2018, it would not be possible to hold a referendum before September 2018, and it would shift to 2019, enough time for PD to replenish its voting base.

Ius Soli therefore looks like an attempt from the Democratic Party to gain more votes at the expense of the safety of Italian people. A small coup d’etat in a country already at the limit of stability.