Bill to give 16-yr-olds the vote coming up - Di Maio

(ANSA) - Rome, October 1 - A bill to give 16-year-olds the vote is coming up, Foreign Minister and 5-Star Movement (M5S) chief Luigi Di Maio said Tuesday.
    Italians currently qualify to vote for the House at 18 and the Senate at 25.
    Di Maio said the M5S would present a constitutional bill to lower the age to 16 "in the next few days".
    Premier Giuseppe Conte and Di Maio said Monday that they were in favour of lowering the voting age to 16. "Lowering the voting threshold to 16 is fine by me," said Conte.
    "They already have it in other countries," he said.
    "We still haven't started discussing it in the government but we could do: but it might be better to do it in parliament".
    Di Maio said via Facebook: "Giving the vote to 16-year-olds is a proposal that we have always been behind and which we support strongly".
    "In Italy young people are called choosy, spoilt, 'Gretini', ('little Gretas', referring to climate crisis activist Greta Thunberg).
    "As far as we are concerned, these people should be respected, listened to and put at the centre of our political world. "If a 16-year-old can work and pay taxes, they should also have the right to vote and decide who makes decisions about their life".