O Decree Law 36 / 2025By restricting the recognition of Italian citizenship based on generations, it revives a form of discrimination already declared unconstitutional by the Italian Constitutional Court.
Attorney Maria Celeste Ramirez cites the 1975 decision (sentence 87), which overturned part of Law 555/1912 for preventing Italian women from passing on citizenship to their children. “The Court recognized that denying the right to citizenship based on gender violated the principle of equality provided for in Article 3 of the Constitution,” it states.
According to her, this precedent consolidated the right to maternal transmission, which had been ignored until then. “It was thanks to the case law based on this article that maternal transmission of citizenship was finally recognized. To backtrack now, creating barriers between generations, would be contradictory and unjustifiable,” she says.
For Ramirez, the new decree creates inequality between descendants, disrespecting an already protected principle. “Establishing generational limits means treating citizens differently, which directly violates the Constitution,” he argues.
She also criticizes the use of the decree to alter the principle of jus sanguinis. “This is a right that is not acquired: it is recognized. The great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of Italians are not asking for a favor, they are simply proving a legal fact that has existed since birth,” he said in an article published on the website Our Fatties.
Retroactivity and legal uncertainty
The jurist also warns about the retroactive nature of the rule. According to her, millions of descendants — including great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren — were born Italian in fact, only requiring documentary recognition.
“Their blood ties already made them Italian citizens. To deny them this right now is an attack on legal certainty and acquired rights.”
Lack of urgency and constitutional violation
Ramirez argues that the decree also fails to meet the urgency requirements set out in Article 77 of the Italian Constitution. She believes the government has used an exceptional instrument improperly.
“The emergency power must cease as soon as the urgency ends. Here, it did not even exist,” he says.
She recalls that the Constitutional Court has already invalidated decrees with a similar defect of origin, as in sentences no. 29/1995, no. 360/1996 and no. 171/2007.
