Was Italy’s 2025 Citizenship Decree REALLY Constitutional? 🇮🇹

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]You know, while working on a new citizenship case that we are preparing for filing before the Italian courts, I come across a constitutional court decision that my opinion deserves much more attention than it is currently getting.

[00:00:17]And no, this is not another video where I repeat the same slogans or tell you that everything is over or everything is saved. But because honestly anyone speaking in absolute terms right now is oversimplifying a very complicated legal situation.

[00:00:39]What I want to show you today is one specific constitutional issue that may become extremely important in the next phase of litigation surrounding Italy's 2025 citizenship reform. And the interesting part is this.

[00:00:56]The issue is not only retroactivity. The issue may also be the way the Italian government decided to pass the reform in the first place.

[00:01:07]Subscribe to the channel and activate notifications because over the next days and weeks, I'll continue breaking down the legal battle surrounding law 74 2025 in a much deeper and more technical way than what you usually hear online. Now, let's get into it. As many of you already know, the reform was introduced through the decree law number 36 of 2025, later converted into the law number 74 of 2025.

[00:01:43]And this matters. Why?

[00:01:46]Because under the Italian constitution, the government cannot simply legislate however it wants through emergency decrees.

[00:01:56]Article 77 of the Constitution allows the government to use the decree laws only in extraordinary cases of necessity and urgency.

[00:02:07]In other words, there must be a real emergency, a sudden situation, something that cannot wait for the ordinary parliamentary process.

[00:02:17]Well, now here is the important point that caught my attention while studying this upcoming case. The government justified the reform partly by referring to the massive increase in citizenship applications, administrative pressure, overloaded consulates, and growing litigation.

[00:02:41]But, let me ask you something.

[00:02:44]Was any of these new?

[00:02:47]Of course not.

[00:02:49]The consular crisis existed for years.

[00:02:52]Prenotami had already become a disaster years before the reform. People had been unable [snorts] to book appointments for a very long time.

[00:03:03]The increase in Euro Sangui applications was already widely known.

[00:03:10]The courts had already been flooded with litigation. This was not a sudden earthquake. It was a structural phenomenon that had been developing progressively over time.

[00:03:27]And this is where things become legally interesting.

[00:03:31]Because while researching this issue, I revisited Constitutional Court decision number 171 of 2007.

[00:03:44]And in that decision, the court made a very important statement. The court basically explained that Parliament cannot automatic automatically fix a constitutional problem simply by converting a decree into law.

[00:04:05]In other words, if the original decree lacked the constitutional requirements of extraordinary necessity and urgency, the latter conversion into law does not automatically erase that the fact.

[00:04:23]Well, I think this is extremely important because now think about the reasoning used by the constitutional court itself in the famous decision number 63 of this year.

[00:04:37]The court repeatedly suggested that the reform was foreseeable.

[00:04:43]That the debate over the existence, that there had been political discussion for a long time.

[00:04:50]That there were already signals pointing toward a reform.

[00:04:56]But, if the reform was foreseeable, if the phenomenon existed for years, if the administrative difficulties were already known, then one obvious constitutional question emerges.

[00:05:14]Why use emergency powers? Why use a decree law instead of an ordinary legislative process? And this is not a political question. It is a constitutional one.

[00:05:29]Well, now let me be very clear here because I know how the internet works. I'm not saying this argument will automatically destroy the reform. And I am also not saying the constitutional court will suddenly reverse everything on June 9th.

[00:05:49]Uh what I'm saying is that this remains one of the constitutional profiles that may still generate serious debate in future litigation, especially because the June 9th hearing is not only limited to one single issue. There are multiple constitutional questions still being discussed.

[00:06:13]Article 77, access to justice, reasonable reliance, people who had already begun the recognition process before March 27th, the scope of the reform, its procedural procedural legitimacy. So, when people online tell you it's completely over or deposit everything will be overturned, the reality is much more complicated than that. And frankly, today neither extreme position makes much sense.

[00:06:49]Because citizenship cases after the 2025 reform are becoming increasingly case specific.

[00:06:58]Dates matter, documents matter, evidence matters, the type of citizenship line matters, what happened before March 27th matters. Whether there were consular attempts, legal preparation, documents to be cast, translations, appointments, or code preparation, all of that matters.

[00:07:21]That is why the only serious approach today is not panic and not blind optimism.

[00:07:31]It is understanding whether your specific situation still allows a legally sustainable strategy.

[00:07:40]So, if you want our firm to evaluate your case after the reform and after constitutional court decision number 63 [snorts] of 2026, you can request a free legal assessment through the link in the description below. And if you appreciate this kind of deeper constitutional analysis, subscribe to the channel because the legal battles surrounding Italian citizenship is far from intellectually over. And you know that at the end of the day, I'll see you in the next video.