A Moroccan woman was about to become Italian when the mayor asked her questions and interrupted the ceremony

The scene took place on Monday, September 21, at the town hall in Cadoneghe, in the province of Padua. Four women of foreign origin had been summoned to take the oath and complete the process of acquiring Italian nationality.

When it was the Moroccan woman’s turn, Mayor Marco Schiesaro asked her, among other things, her name and how she was doing. According to his account, she was unable to respond intelligibly or read the oath record on her own. The man accompanying her, presented as her husband, then attempted to speak on her behalf.

The mayor refused and stopped the ceremony. To justify his decision, he stated that the person taking the oath must personally understand the significance of her commitment to the Italian Republic.

The problem emerged immediately: all of the Moroccan woman’s documents were in order. Schiesaro himself acknowledged that she notably possessed the B1 certificate attesting to her knowledge of Italian, a document she had reportedly obtained ten years earlier, reports La Repubblica.

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B1 is precisely the level required by Italian legislation for certain nationality applications. It must be certified by an authorized body and checked during the examination of the application. In this case, that step had therefore already been validated before the summons to the town hall.

The town hall suspends everything and consults the prefecture

The procedure is now frozen. The mayor has turned to the prefecture to determine how to proceed with the application and what checks can still be carried out after the language certificate has been issued.

Schiesaro claims that municipal services had already alerted him to the candidate’s difficulties expressing herself in Italian. He defends his intervention in the name of the value of citizenship and has offered the Moroccan woman the opportunity to attend free classes organized by the municipality.

His decision has sparked controversy in Italy. Several internet users accuse him of turning himself into an examiner even though the administration had already checked the candidate’s language skills. Others point out that many descendants of Italians living abroad hold nationality without speaking the language.

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The issue goes beyond the postponement of a ceremony. After notification of the decree granting nationality, the applicant must take the oath before her municipality within six months, notes the official guide to Italian prefectures. Without this oath, the decree ceases to have effect.