This Saturday, April 26th, and next Saturday, May 3rd, descendants of Italians are organizing protests in São Paulo and Rome, respectively, against... Decree Law 36 / 2025. The law, currently being processed by the Italian Parliament, limits citizenship by descent to the second generation born outside Italy.
In São Paulo, the demonstration will take place at 10 am, at Milan City Square, in the Jardim Lusitânia neighborhood. The location was chosen for its symbolic value. It is estimated that Brazil is home to around 30 million descendants of Italians, with the capital of São Paulo being considered the largest “Italian city” outside of Italy.
Among the organizers is Walter Fanganiello Maierovitch, a jurist and president of the Giovanni Falcone Institute. According to him, “by limiting citizenship to the second generation born abroad, the decree interferes with a historically recognized right.”
The text, presented under urgent procedure, eliminates the unlimited transmission of Italian citizenship. jure sanguinis — by right of blood. According to the proposal, the right ceases to be automatic for descendants who have not yet filed the process.
Demonstration in Rome will be on May 3rd
Mobilization continues in Italy. On May 3, the Capitol SquareA meeting in Rome will be held to meet with protesters. The aim is to denounce the impacts of the measure, especially for young people of Italian descent who have not yet been able to begin the process of obtaining citizenship.
Antonella Nediani, an Italian-Argentine lawyer living in Faenza, is one of the leaders of the protest. She warns of the risk of excluding hundreds of thousands of people with historical ties to Italy. “This is a birthright, not a privilege,” she says.
Among the most criticized points are the automatic loss of the right for those who have not yet filed the application, the requirement that the parent has lived in Italy for two years before the birth of the child, and the increase in the application fee to 700 euros.
Nediani argues that the decree has “serious flaws of unconstitutionality”. For her, denying recognition is erasing a part of the country’s migratory history. “The right to citizenship is part of Italian identity. It cannot be denied or weakened”, she argues.
