Argentine President Milei obtains Italian citizenship

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 14 - Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei was informed on Friday during his ongoing visit to Italy that the procedure for him to obtain Italian citizenship has been successfully completed, sources said.
    The 'anarcho-capitalist' had talks with Premier Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Friday and is taking part on Saturday in the Atreju festival organized by the youth wing of her right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
    The 54-year-old has been granted Italian citizenship on the basis of his Italian ancestry thanks to a special fast-track procedure Meloni's government launched weeks ago, the sources said.
    The news that Milei has obtained dual citizenship triggered indignation among opposition parties, which have been calling for the criteria for granting Italian citizenship to be relaxed, especially for children born here to migrant parents.
    Children born in Italy to migrants cannot apply for Italian citizenship until they are 18.
    Non-EU citizens need to have lived 10 years in Italy before they can request Italian citizenship, while it is four years for EU citizens.
    "The Italian government granted Italian citizenship to Javier Milei with a speed that is not the same as that for many people who are abroad and who have Italian parents or grandparents," said Angelo Bonelli, an MP for the Green-Left Alliance (AVS).
    "Why was procedure accelerated for Milei, when others who apply for citizenship by ius sanguinis have to wait years?".
    Riccardo Magi of the More Europe party commented that: "for the millions of Italians without citizenship who were born in Italy, who grew up in our country, who studied here, who work here, who pay taxes in our country, obtaining Italian citizenship will remain an ordeal, despite them being truly Italian, not like Milei". (ANSA).