Milei can trace his Italian roots to Calabria.

Argentina's president Javier Milei has been awarded Italian citizenship by the right-wing government of Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni, according to news reports in Italy.

Milei, who took office one year ago, spoke about his Italian heritage during a trip to Italy last February, noting that his grandparents came from the southern Italian region of Calabria.

"I am 75 per cent Italian" - Milei told Meloni at the time - "because both of my father's parents were Italian" and "on my mother's side, her mother was of Italian origin and her father of Yugoslavian origin".

Milei, 54, received Italian citizenship on the basis of the "ius sanguinis" principle of blood ties, government sources told Il Post, without providing further details.

Rome's Circus Maximus is being used to host Atreju, a conservative political festival organised by the right-wing Fratelli d'Italia party of Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni, from 8-15 December. pic.twitter.com/Dzoay842rK

— Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) November 22, 2024

The news is expected to be announced formally on Saturday when Milei will be a guest of Atreju, the political festival organised by Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia party, currently underway at the Circus Maximus in Rome.

Milei and Meloni have a warm relationship and share conservative, right-wing views.

The two leaders recently met in Buenos Aires where Milei presented Meloni with a gift of a chainsaw-wielding figurine of himself.

President of Argentina Javier Milei gives PM Giorgia Meloni a figure representing him holding a chainsaw

Nov 20, 2024 pic.twitter.com/zpeZiFsqnf

— Crazy Ass Moments in Italian Politics (@CrazyItalianPol) November 20, 2024

The granting of Italian citizenship to Milei is seen as "a diplomatic move to strengthen ties with Argentina, at a time when it is very important for Italy to have new outlets and new trade relations with South American countries, given the concrete risk that the United States will introduce new duties in the coming months", Il Post reports.

Italian citizenship is also to be granted to Milei’s younger sister Karina, the secretary general of Argentina's presidency and her brother’s chief political advisor.

Milei can trace his Italian heritage to a Calabrian villlage between Cosenza and Rosarno where in 1926 his grandfather Francesco "Ciccio" Milei, then aged eight, emigrated with his family for a new life in Argentina.

Reaction

The fast-tracked move has drawn sharp criticism from Riccardo Magi, leader of the centre-left +Europa party, who contrasted the ease with which Milei obtained Italian citizenship with the difficulty for the children of foreigners born in Italy, for whom the process is much tougher.

Magi said the granting of citizenship to Milei, "a friend of Giorgia Meloni", was "yet another slap in the face to young boys and girls who were born here or live here permanently and have been waiting for citizenship for years and years, sometimes without any result".

Vivi in Italia da quando sei nato? Frequenti le scuole del Paese? Parli italiano ma i tuoi genitori sono di origine straniera? La cittadinanza, allora, te la puoi sognare.

In Italia non ci hai praticamente mai messo piede ma ti chiami Javier Milei, sei amico di Giorgia Meloni e… pic.twitter.com/Gv0W3u3wg0

— Riccardo Magi (@riccardomagi) December 13, 2024

Earlier this year Magi was the driving force behind a successful petition calling for a referendum to make it easier for foreigners living in Italy to claim Italian citizenship, a move opposed by the Meloni government.

The petition for the referendum, which surpassed its goal of half a million signatures, was approved on Friday by Italy's court of cassation and now awaits a final decision from the constitutional court.

Photo credit: Jonah Elkowitz / Shutterstock.com.