Italy advances bill to widen citizenship revocation powers

Italy’s Chamber of Deputies has voted to fast-track legislation that would significantly expand the state's ability to strip naturalised citizens of their status. The bill, proposed by the League party, passed its initial procedural hurdle on Wednesday with 148 votes in favour, 99 against and two abstentions.

Under current rules established by a 2018 security decree, citizenship revocation is strictly limited to terrorism convictions. That power has rarely been exercised, with only two reported cases to date, both of which were legally contested in 2023 and 2025. The League’s proposal would broaden this to include homicide, human trafficking, female genital mutilation, and sexual violence against minors or committed by a group.

The legal shift would affect a wide demographic. It applies to anyone who acquired Italian citizenship through marriage, standard residency requirements, or by declaring citizenship at age 18 after growing up in the country, regardless of when the oath was taken. League group leader Riccardo Molinari told parliament the revocation should apply to “anyone who stabs, kills and rapes.”

For residents and employers, the move signals an increasingly complex legal environment for naturalised citizens. While the Italian constitution explicitly bars stripping citizenship for political reasons or leaving a person stateless, the broadened criteria introduce new legal uncertainties. The fast-tracked process halves the reporting deadline for the Constitutional Affairs Committee, setting an August 8th date, though the bill still requires further votes in both chambers.

The legislative push is also exposing fractures within Italy's ruling right-wing coalition. On the same day the League's bill advanced, coalition partner Brothers of Italy (FdI) presented a separate, similar bill tied to a wider plan to repatriate convicted foreign nationals. FdI programme chief Francesco Filini told Il Fatto Quotidiano the party filed its own motion because “we are a party, not the government.”

Opposition parties argue the legislative race is driven by fringe competition rather than public policy. 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.” He was referring to former general Roberto Vannacci’s new far-right party, which has recently surged in polls by demanding the mass deportation of foreigners.