ROME: When Argentine President Javier Milei stepped onto the grounds of Giorgia Meloni‘s social gathering competition at Rome’s Circus Maximus, a conservative honest that combined vacation and Italy-First vitality, he discovered a skating rink, a Christmas tree and an upbeat, anti-woke crowd. However with the go to, he acquired one thing greater than recordings of Mariah Carey and conferences with Meloni, the prime minister of Italy and a conservative ally. He additionally obtained Italian citizenship.
Milei, whose grandparents emigrated from Italy to Argentina, obtained the citizenship due to his bloodline, Italy’s overseas ministry stated this previous week. The announcement sparked some anger amongst critics of the govt. in Italy, who’ve lengthy opposed Italy’s citizenship regulation for permitting folks with distant Italian ancestry to get an Italian passport, however not granting citizenship to youngsters of immigrants born in Italy.
“Granting the Italian citizenship to President Milei is one more slap within the face to girls and boys who had been born right here or reside right here completely and have been ready for citizenship for years and years, typically with none consequence,” Riccardo Magi, a liberal opposition lawmaker, wrote on X.
Italy does not routinely grant citizenship to youngsters born in its borders, whether or not or not the dad and mom are within the nation legally. Liberals have proposed a referendum to alter the regulation, however Meloni’s govt has resisted it. Milei has repeatedly expressed satisfaction in his Italian ancestry, however hasn’t defined why, as a head of state, he would search the citizenship of one other nation.