Italy fast-tracks citizenship stripping as coalition eyes 2027 vote

Italy’s lower house voted 148 to 99 on Wednesday to fast-track a League bill that would dramatically expand the government's power to revoke citizenship, while the Brothers of Italy (FdI) introduced a companion measure targeting foreign prisoners.

Currently, Italy can only strip naturalised citizens of their status for terrorism or insurgency. This power, introduced in 2018 by League leader Matteo Salvini, has been used just twice and faced court challenges in both 2023 and 2025. Both coalition parties now want to extend this to serious crimes.

The League’s bill explicitly targets convictions for murder, female genital mutilation, human trafficking, and sexual violence. FdI immigration chief Sara Kelany said her party’s version covers "all the most serious offences: murder, mass murder, kidnapping and offences linked to the Mafia."

League lower house leader Riccardo Molinari told parliament the goal was to strip citizenship from "those who stab, those who kill and those who rape." He added that it would be "a good thing to revoke these people’s citizenship and send them back to their own country as quickly as possible."

Prisons and second-generation barriers

Beyond citizenship, FdI proposed deporting non-EU nationals sentenced to more than a year in prison to serve their time in their countries of origin. FdI lower house leader Galeazzo Bignami said this would reduce Italy's chronically overcrowded prisons by 13,890 inmates, noting that non-EU citizens account for 31 percent of the prison population.

Implementing the deportation plan would require bilateral agreements with countries deemed "safe." Simultaneously, the League is pushing to further restrict citizenship acquisition for second-generation migrants, suspending applications for anyone facing criminal proceedings or convicted of offences ranging from drug possession to vandalism.

Electoral pressure

For the broader European public and economic landscape, the proposals signal a deepening of Italy's already rigid immigration framework at a time when demographic shifts are a major factor across the continent. Italy currently has some of the most restrictive citizenship rules in Europe for children born to foreign parents, who must apply before turning 19 after an unbroken lifetime of residency.

The legislative push follows a surge in popularity for former general Roberto Vannacci's new far-right party, National Future, which campaigns on mass deportations. Green and Left Alliance MP Peppe De Cristofaro told Corriere della Sera that the League and FdI were "chasing National Future on who is more racist" ahead of the 2027 general election.

The League’s bill now has an August 8 deadline for committee review, though it still requires further votes in both chambers. The FdI bill is months away from a floor vote.