The Italian Interior Ministry is weighing a rare public honor for a group of residents who stopped a knife-wielding driver in Modena this month, but the political calculus around citizenship—both granting and revoking it—has become a flashpoint among Italy's ruling coalition partners just as millions of Italians head to polls in local elections this weekend.
At the heart of the dispute: Salim El Koudri, a 31-year-old dual Italian-Moroccan citizen accused of deliberately driving into pedestrians on via Emilia on May 16, injuring eight people, four of them seriously. Matteo Salvini, secretary of the Lega party, is demanding El Koudri's passport be stripped as part of a broader campaign to expand revocation powers to cover violent crimes, not just terrorism. But his coalition partners in Fratelli d'Italia (FdI) and Forza Italia are signaling they have little appetite for legislative overreach.
The incident also thrust Osama Shalaby, a 56-year-old Egyptian bricklayer who has lived in Italy for 30 years, and his 20-year-old son Mohammed into the political spotlight. The pair, along with Italian residents Luca Signorelli and Fabrizio Gallanza, and a Bangladeshi citizen named Hosseini Iqbal, physically subdued El Koudri after the attack. Now they are being discussed as candidates for the Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Civile—the republic's highest civilian honor—and the Shalabys as potential recipients of honorary citizenship.
Why This Matters
• Citizenship as leverage: The Lega wants to expand revocation to include murder, rape, armed robbery, and drug trafficking—crimes currently outside the law's scope.
• Current law limits revocation to terrorism: Only citizens who naturalized or married into citizenship and were later convicted of terrorism or subversion can lose their passport, and only within 10 years of conviction.
• Timing is political: Over 6 million Italians vote this weekend in local elections covering 750 municipalities, including 18 provincial capitals, with Venice a high-stakes race for the center-right.
The Legal Reality Behind Revocation
Italy's citizenship revocation statute, Article 10-bis of Law 91/1992, is narrow by design. It applies only to adults who acquired citizenship through marriage, naturalization, or post-majority declaration—not to anyone born with Italian nationality under ius sanguinis. Even for eligible cases, revocation is permitted solely for convictions related to terrorism or constitutional subversion, and only if the person holds or can obtain another nationality to avoid statelessness.
The most recent update came in the 2025 Security Decree (Law 80/2025), which extended the window for revocation from three years to 10 years after final conviction. Crimes such as homicide, rape, or drug trafficking—no matter how severe—do not trigger revocation under current law.
El Koudri, born in Seriate (Bergamo) in 1995, gained citizenship automatically at age 18 after his father was naturalized in 2009. That means he is Italian by acquisition, technically making him subject to revocation—but only if convicted of terrorism or subversion. Prosecutors are still investigating; early reports cited a history of psychiatric issues and aggressive anti-Christian emails dating to 2021, complicating the question of motive.
Salvini has framed the debate as one of trust. "The citizenship is an act of faith by the Italian people," he said this week. "When someone rapes, kills, deals drugs—do I have the right to reconsider that act of trust?" He has tasked a team of legal experts with drafting a proposal to extend revocation and expedite deportation for violent criminals who hold residence permits.
Coalition Partners Pump the Brakes
But his allies are holding the line. Galeazzo Bignami, the FdI caucus leader in the Chamber of Deputies, said his party would "listen to the Lega's proposals," but added bluntly: "Expanding the list of crimes is not currently on the agenda."
Fulvio Martusciello, head of the Forza Italia delegation in Brussels, went further, effectively flipping Salvini's argument. "A mature country takes stock of the signals," he said, "by granting citizenship to the Egyptians who stopped El Koudri. That shows that inclusion is a signal for those who deserve it." He also reminded Salvini that for a natural-born Italian, losing citizenship is constitutionally impossible.
Antonio Tajani, who serves as both Forza Italia leader and foreign minister, has formally proposed that the Interior Ministry award the Medaglia al Valor Civile to all five individuals who intervened, including the two Shalabys. The process requires a presidential decree on recommendation from the interior minister—a lengthy bureaucratic procedure that, as of now, has not formally begun.
Osama Shalaby, who works in construction and has spent three decades in Italy, told reporters he hopes his actions might help his family finally obtain citizenship and access to public housing—basic stability he has sought for years.
What This Means for Residents
If you are a naturalized citizen or obtained Italian nationality through marriage, your status remains secure unless you are convicted of terrorism or subversion within a decade of the final ruling. The law does not cover violent crimes unrelated to national security, and any attempt to broaden it will require new legislation—a prospect that appears unlikely given FdI's reluctance and Forza Italia's outright opposition.
For long-term residents hoping to naturalize, the landscape is unchanged: the standard pathway requires 10 years of legal residence and passage of a B1-level Italian language exam. The Lega filed a bill in November 2025, signed by deputy Jacopo Morrone, that would raise these requirements and add a civic integration test, but it has not advanced.
The Interior Ministry has not confirmed any timeline for the valor medals. If awarded, it would mark the latest instance of Italy publicly honoring foreign residents for exceptional civic action—a symbolic gesture, but one that does little to change the broader naturalization framework.
Election Pressure and the Venice Race
The timing of the debate is not coincidental. May 25 and 26 mark the largest round of municipal elections this cycle. Among the most closely watched contests is Venice, historically a Lega stronghold. The center-right is fielding Simone Venturini, an assessor in outgoing mayor Luigi Brugnaro's administration. The center-left has nominated Andrea Martella, a senator with the Democratic Party (PD), who hopes to reclaim city hall after years out of power.
Salvini has spent the week hammering security themes, betting that hard-line messaging on citizenship and public order will energize his base ahead of Sunday's vote. His allies, meanwhile, are trying to project a more measured image—balancing law-and-order credentials with an appeal to moderate voters wary of nationalist overreach.
Antonio De Poli, national secretary of the Union of the Centre (UDC), a minor coalition partner, struck a conciliatory note. "When ordinary people choose to help others by putting themselves at the service of the community," he said in a statement, "the institutions must express gratitude."
The Bigger Picture
Italy's citizenship framework remains rooted in ancestry. Unlike neighboring France or Germany, which have introduced or expanded birthright or residency-based pathways, Italy grants nationality primarily through descent. Naturalization after a decade of residence is possible, but the process is slow, discretionary, and expensive. Proposals to introduce ius scholae—granting citizenship to children who complete a full school cycle in Italy—have repeatedly stalled in parliament, blocked by the Lega and parts of FdI.
Revocation, by contrast, is rarely used. Even under the expanded 10-year window introduced last year, only a handful of cases have proceeded. Most involve individuals convicted of supporting foreign jihadist organizations or plotting attacks on Italian soil. Stripping citizenship for non-security crimes would likely face constitutional challenges, as Italy's legal tradition places significant weight on the principle of proportionality and the prohibition of statelessness.
The debate over El Koudri and the Shalabys encapsulates a larger tension within Italy's right-wing government: between a populist wing eager to use citizenship as a political tool and a pragmatic wing wary of crossing legal and diplomatic red lines. For now, the latter appears to be winning. But with elections looming and Salvini under pressure to deliver results for his base, the argument is unlikely to fade soon.
