Jair Bolsonaro, João Doria Junior, and Sérgio Moro, three presidential candidates in 2022, have Italian citizenship since birth. That's what Italian law says.
Italy, like most countries, recognizes its children, even if they were born outside its territory. It respects the jus sanguinis (the law of blood). In Italy, there is no generation limit to apply for citizenship.
So, the captain, the current governor of São Paulo and the former judge are Italian citizens by right of blood, since they were born. It doesn't matter if they never requested the Italian document. It is not the paper that confers nationality; it merely certifies that the right exists.
In November 2021, some media outlets in Brazil erroneously published the news that the Mayor of Anguillara Veneta had “granted Italian citizenship to Bolsonaro”.
It's the journalist's lack of knowledge. It's not possible give citizenship to those who already have it.
What the mayor did was grant an honor to the great-grandson of patriarch Vittorio Bolzonaro (yes, that is the correct surname), originally from Anguillara Veneta.
Yes, João Doria Junior declared in 2017, shortly before embarking on a business trip to Italy, that "Italian citizenship is a matter of the heart." "I didn't apply for it, I could have, but I am very Brazilian and I love my country very much."
Sérgio Moro, the judge who gained fame by sending bigwigs like Lula to jail, for example, another presidential candidate in 2022 and convicted of corruption in the Lava-Jato operation, also has Italian blood.
The great-great-grandparents of Sérgio Moro came from Veneto. Giuseppe Moro was from Breganze and Margharita Novello, from Sandrigo, both cities in the province of Vicenza, the northern region of Italy.
The most important rules imposed by Italy to recognize the citizenship of a descendant are basically two:
1) He needs to prove that he has an Italian ancestor. In this case, Bolsonaro, Doria and Moro have Italian blood;
2) It is necessary to prove that no one, in the line of succession, lost their original Italian nationality due to naturalization.
Once both conditions are met, the descendant – regardless of the degree – will be recognized as a full Italian.
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