Italy has significantly reduced the time it will take to get a divorce to 6 months from 3 years. The Italian Prime Minister tweeted last Wednesday ‘Another promise kept. Let’s move forward’. It is believed the change is part of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s efforts to tame the country’s much-hated bureaucracy. The quick passage of the law also shows how the Catholic Church is gradually losing its influence on life and politics in Italian culture.
Divorce was not legal in Italy until 1970 and the initial law imposed a mandatory five-year separation period intended to make couples reconsider however in 1978 this was reduced to three years. Due to the expansion of the European Union, many Italians would set up false residences in countries where a quicker divorce was possible, such as the UK, due to the restrictions in Italy. Once the divorce was completed they would apply to have the divorce recognised in Italy. Last year, 180 divorces of Italian couples were annulled after the President of the Family Division declared they were obtained fraudulently. This was one of many reasons for the divorce processing changes in the UK which took place late last year.