The ruling centre-right Forza Italia
(FI) on Saturday presented a bill that would shorten the amount
of time needed for migrant children to obtain Italian
citizenship to 10 years while the youth wing of its ruling
partner the rightwing League targeted FI leader, Deputy Premier
and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani calling him a "migrant
trafficker" because of his drive to make migrant children
citizenship easier and faster to get.
Under the FI's Ius Italiae (Latin for Law of Italy) bill,
migrant kids could become Italian citizens after 10 years of
compulsory schooling.
"You'd be Italian because you were educated in Italy," said
Tajani.
The League youth section raised a banner at the party's annual
rally at its spiritual home Pontida in northern Italy saying:
"Ius scholae in sight, Tajani a (migrant) smuggler?", referring
to a previous FI proposal to give migrant children citizenship
after five years of schooling.
Citizenship for migrant children is a hot topic in Italy with
the Left pushing for Ius Soli (Law of the Soil), or automatic
citizenship for being born in Italy.
League leader, Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo
Salvini immediately apologized to Tajani for his youth section's
banner saying "I apologize on their behalf. Every ally is a
friend".
Tajani responded: "For me too, every ally is a friend. Loyalty
is the
principle on which the centre right is based."
But the League deputy prime minister went on to reiterate that
in the League's eyes no change to the current citizenship rules
are needed.
Currently the children of migrants who are born in Italy can
apply for citizenship when they turn 18, and it normally takes a
couple of years for them to obtain it.
Salvini said: "The citizenship law is fine as it is and is not a
priority."
On Sunday in Pontida the historic gathering that this year
promises to be the most 'sovereignist' ever, after Marine Le
Pen, a superstar of the stage last year, the big names of the
European far right most hostile to "fortress Europe" are
expected.
Leaders and figures from the Patriots for Europe group set up
after the European Parliament elections are expected to take to
the stage at the rally, with Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban
starring this year in place of Le Pen, who will send a video
message.
The European Patriots group is seen as farther to the right of
Premier Giorgia Meloni's European Conservatives and Reformists
caucus which features Poland's Law and Justice party and the
Sweden Democrats among others, but which has seen defections to
the Patriots.
Among the figures taking to the Pontida stage will be Spanish
Vox spokesperson Jose Antonio Fuster ruling Dutch Freedom Party
leader Geert Widers, the Portuguese Andrè Ventura of Chega and
Austrian Marlene Svazek of the FPO, which has just won the
elections on the other side of the Alps.
There is also a third, even farther right group in the EP,
Europe of Sovereign Nations, featuring French firebrand Eric
Zemmour and Alternative for Germany, which recently won regional
elections in Thuringia.
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