Sergio Mattarella

In office; countersigned the decree into law

For more than 160 years, anyone who could trace an unbroken bloodline to an Italian ancestor could claim Italian citizenship, no matter how many generations had passed or whether they had ever set foot in Italy. On March 12, 2026, Italy's Constitutional Court upheld a law that ended that principle, capping eligibility at people with an Italian-born parent or grandparent and requiring that ancestor to have held only Italian citizenship. The ruling closes the door on millions of descendants in Brazil, Argentina, the United States, and elsewhere who previously had a legal path to an Italian passport and, with it, the right to live and work anywhere in the European Union.

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