Responsible for the transcription of civil status acts from abroad in the Comune di Rome, Francesca Barbanti stated, in an interview published by the portal Public Lens, that Decree-Law 36/2025 “frontally violates the Italian Constitution”. The rule imposes new barriers to the recognition of Italian citizenship jure sanguinis, that is, by descent.
Approved on March 28, the decree – which needs to be converted into law – establishes that requests not yet filed by the 27th of that month will be automatically rejected. The text highlights that retroactivity is one of the most critical points.
According to Public Lens, Barbanti claims that the decree violates the principle of non-retroactivity, provided for in article 11 of the Preleggi and in Article 25 of the Italian Constitution. It highlights that the rule imposes new requirements on those who correctly followed the previous rules. “Those who organized their documents in accordance with current legislation now find themselves penalized by changes imposed suddenly,” the text states.
Security as a legislative justification
The government justified the issuing of the decree based on “necessity and urgency” in the name of the security of the Republic. The claim is that the high number of citizenship requests and corruption cases would represent an institutional risk.
According to the Public Lens, Barbanti states that there is no legal basis that allows the recognition of citizenship by blood to be associated with national security. She highlights that Law 91/1992 determines that only requests for naturalization must be submitted for evaluation by the security services.
Vice-president of the association Natitaliani, Francesca Barbanti also emphasizes that citizenship jure sanguinis It is not granted by the State, but rather certified as a pre-existing right. The use of the term “security”, according to the published analysis, would be a strategy to justify the urgency of the measure and circumvent parliamentary debate.
Risk to legal certainty
The portal also reports that Barbanti considers the decree to be a dangerous precedent. For her, the rule undermines the separation between citizenship recognized by birth and citizenship granted by the State.
“By applying new requirements to requests already in progress, the decree erases the legal past of thousands of people,” the article says. The practice would put legal certainty at risk and open loopholes for future restrictions on other civil rights.
Official joins chorus of criticism of decree
The measure has been questioned by jurists, associations and judicial authorities. This week, the former president of the Venice Court, Salvatore Laganà, warned the Senate about the risks of creating a rule that could be overturned in court.
Before him, the current president of the National Association of Magistrates, Cesare Parodi, had also pointed out traces of unconstitutionality – in an interview with the public broadcaster Rai.
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