Italy’s government has granted citizenship to Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, on account of his Italian family roots, prompting outrage among opposition politicians who contrasted his treatment with that of the children born in Italy of migrant parents.

Milei is in Rome to meet the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and to take part in her Brothers of Italy party’s annual festival on Saturday.

A source with knowledge of the matter said the government had given Italian citizenship to the Argentine leader, declining to provide further details.

The news reported by Italian media triggered an angry reaction from some politicians and on social media from people protesting the citizenship being given to Milei when it is hard to obtain for children born in Italy to migrant parents.

Italy’s citizenship laws are based on blood ties, meaning that even distant descendants of an Italian national can obtain an Italian passport. Requirements for foreigners born in Italy or who migrate there, on the other hand, are much tougher. Pro-migrant groups have proposed a referendum to ease them, but Meloni’s rightwing coalition is against any relaxation.

Riccardo Magi, a lawmaker from the small opposition +Europa party, said granting citizenship to Milei was an act of “intolerable discrimination against so many young people who will only get it after many years”.

During a previous trip to Italy in February, Milei said in a TV interview he felt “75% Italian” since three of his grandparents had Italian origins, and that he has “an incredible passion for Italian opera”.

Libertarian Milei and conservative Meloni have established a close relationship. When they met in Buenos Aires last month, the Argentine leader gave his Italian guest a statuette of himself wielding his trademark chainsaw.