The Italian Senate approved on Thursday, the 8th, a package of amendments to the text of DDL 1432, included in Decree-Law No. 36/2025, known as the “Tajani Decree”. The text includes an unprecedented requirement: the Italian ancestor must have had exclusively Italian citizenship, including at the time of death. The proposal now moves to a new round of discussions on May 14th.
“Riccardo De Simone and I published an essay a few years ago on dual citizenship, in which we explained the normative evolution. The amendment 'exclusively Italian citizenship' takes us back 200 years and revives the thesis of the unity of citizenship, in complete contrast to the pluralist trend towards bipolarity.” (dual citizenship)".
With this statement, the jurist Giovanni Bonato rekindled an old alert. The issue of dual citizenship and its normative evolution was the subject of an in-depth study by him and by Riccardo De Simone, published in Judicium, one of the most respected legal journals in Italy.
Now, it is back at the center of the debate with the approval, by the Italian Senate, of a new set of rules that threatens to disregard consolidated advances.
The changes directly affect citizenship applications by jure sanguinis, especially Italian-Brazilians. But legal experts point out that the proposal goes against recent Italian doctrine and jurisprudence.
“The loss of the status civitatis "Without the indispensable element of voluntarism and spontaneity directed towards obtaining foreign citizenship," state Giovanni Bonato and Riccardo De Simone in a study published following several rulings by the Court of Rome.
Between 2021 and 2022, the Court of Appeals ruled on a series of appeals from the Ministry of the Interior and reaffirmed, on several occasions, that Italian citizenship can only be lost through express renunciation, never through automatic naturalization.
Ruling No. 6640/2021, for example, rejected the argument of the Brazilian “Great Naturalization” as a cause for loss of citizenship. “The loss of citizenship could only result from an initiative by the citizen who expressed a clear desire to obtain another nationality,” the decision highlighted.
In a similar ruling, judgment no. 1496/2022 deemed the so-called "tacit renunciation" through supposedly conclusive behaviors legally invalid. According to the Court, an express manifestation of the will to renounce Italian citizenship is essential, and the mere fact of acquiring another nationality is not sufficient.
Case law also recognizes that descendants born in countries that adopt the jus soli, like Brazil, can hold two citizenships from birth. “The descendant, even if born abroad before Law No. 555/1912, has two citizenships from birth and retains them, unless expressly waived”, states sentence No. 1681/2022.
In this context, Bonato warns that the amendment approved in the Senate represents a historic setback.
The Italian legislative tradition has always privileged the jus sanguinis as the main criterion for the recognition of citizenship, as provided for since the Civil Code of 1865, through Law No. 555/1912 up to the current Law No. 91/1992. In all of them, the transmission of citizenship by descent is guaranteed as long as there is no voluntary and formal interrupting act.
Case law also reaffirms that the burden of proof of loss of citizenship lies with the Italian State. Sentence No. 4153/2022 reinforces that “It is up to the Ministry of the Interior to prove facts that are capable of interrupting the transmission of citizenship by right of blood“In several processes, this accepts as evidence favorable to the applicant the negative certificate of naturalization (CNN) issued by the Brazilian authorities.
With the Tajani Decree under debate, tension is growing between the established legal interpretation and the proposed new legislative criteria. If approved as is, the Court of Cassation in Rome will be called upon again to guarantee the rights of Italian descendants.
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