• Italy's recent referendum on citizenship and labor rights failed due to low voter turnout, with only around 30% participation.
• The proposals included reducing the residency requirement for citizenship from ten to five years, impacting 2.5 million foreign nationals.
• Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government encouraged a boycott, leading to significant voter apathy.

An Italian referendum aimed at easing citizenship laws and enhancing workers' rights has been declared invalid after low voter turnout. Official reports indicate that turnout hovered around 30% after two days of voting, significantly below the required 50% threshold necessary for the vote to be binding, according to The New York Times and Le Monde.

The referendum sought to reduce the time required for foreigners to apply for citizenship from 10 to 5 years and included other labor-related protections. Approximately 2.5 million foreign nationals would have been positively affected by these changes, reports India Times and NPR.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her right-wing coalition actively discouraged participation in the referendum, with Meloni stating she was "absolutely against" the proposed changes. She visited a polling station but did not cast a vote herself, according to BBC and Reuters.

The low turnout reflects a larger crisis of democratic engagement in Italy, prompting civil society leaders and unions, such as the CGIL, to express disappointment in the failure to mobilize the electorate effectively. Maurizio Landini, general secretary of CGIL, described the outcome as indicative of an ongoing "democratic crisis," as reported by Los Angeles Times and Africa News.

Opposition parties hoped that a strong turnout would signal discontent with Meloni's government and challenge her administration's stance on immigration and labor rights. However, the results revealed fractures within the opposition, as voter turnout and engagement for the citizenship measures varied significantly among different regions, highlighting conservative inclinations in less affluent areas, according to Reuters and TRT World.