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".
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