The controversial mayor of Val di Zoldo, Camillo De Pellegrin, participated this Thursday, April 10, in a public hearing at the Italian Senate, at the invitation of the Constitutional Affairs Committee.
The topic of discussion was the bill that aims to tighten the criteria for granting Italian citizenship to descendants.
Accompanied by director Alina Maier, De Pellegrin recounted the experience of the municipality, which has become one of the most sought-after destinations for oriundi — descendants of Italians born abroad — interested in obtaining Italian citizenship.
According to him, Law No. 32 of 2007 caused imbalances in the system:
“It is the law that created the business and allowed the native, who in the genealogy had to go back many generations until finding some Italian blood, to come to Italy and settle only for the time necessary to see the practice approved”.
During the session, the mayor stated that he had achieved the main objective of participation:
“We have managed to make the highest levels of politics understand that the issue of Italian citizenship deserves great attention. We cannot continue to treat it as we have in the past.”
For De Pellegrin, citizenship must be linked to continuous presence in Italian territory:
“To obtain Italian citizenship there must be a stable link with the territory; a citizenship that is not obtained simply by arrival, but by actual residence. Because while it is true that in many parts of the world there is a strong link with Italy, it must be recognized that in other cases the links are fictitious.”
The mayor also advocated the adoption of policies that encourage the return of descendants willing to integrate permanently:
“This province and this country need people. This can be achieved with more births or with the return of the descendants of the Oriundi, who should be given a preferential route. But I am talking about return and stability, not about a ticket to obtain a document that does not certify membership of a State, which is a community, but only the possession of a certificate.”
The speech, although controversial, echoes an uncomfortable reality: not even Italians want to live in Val di Zoldo, which suffers from a lack of basic infrastructure and geographical isolation. Like many small mountain towns, it faces population exodus and limited services.
