Sergio Mattarella

Rule Changes

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. 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 cuts off millions of descendants in Brazil, Argentina, the United States, and elsewhere who could previously claim an Italian passport and the right to live and work anywhere in the European Union.

Updated May 30