Sergio Mattarella

Rule Changes

Blocked giving soldiers policing powers

Thousands marched in eight Italian cities on October 24 and Milan stayed calm. Police reported nine arrests nationwide, 87 people referred to authorities and 371 taken in for checks, 110 of them minors.

Updated Oct 26

Rule Changes

As of May 2026: 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