Blocking a road in protest against climate change could soon be punishable by prison in Italy, as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government cracks down on demonstrations, even peaceful ones.
A new security law passed by MPs and set for final scrutiny in the Senate has been dubbed the “anti-Gandhi” bill by critics – after pacifist Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi – because it targeted demonstrations by people ranging from prisoners to climate activists. .
It specifically targets protests against two major infrastructure projects – a Turin-Lyon high-speed cross-border rail line to France and a bridge across the Strait of Messina to Sicily – both championed by Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.
Salvini, who is also responsible for transport and infrastructure, is a defender of the internal combustion engine and crusades against “climate terrorism”, especially the young members of the Last Generation, a climate group known for its headline-grabbing protests.
Under the new law, blocking a road outside the permitted route of a demonstration can be punished with up to two years in prison, compared to the current fine of between 1,000 and 4,000 euros.
Critics see it as a deliberate attempt to silence dissent from Italy’s most right-wing government since the end of World War II.
But Salvini, head of the far-right League party, rejected accusations of a “police state” and insisted: “Good people have nothing to fear.”
– ‘Ideological madness’ –
Meloni’s post-fascist Brothers of Italy party took office in October 2022 after an election victory fueled by anti-immigration, nationalist and populist rhetoric, forming a coalition with the League and the right-wing Forza Italia party.
The government has since passed numerous laws and measures designed to appease their right-wing base, from legislation restricting the activities of charities that rescue migrants at sea to strengthening an existing ban on surrogacy and combating youth crime.
With the security law, “the government wants to charm the part of society that continues to vote mainly for far-right parties,” including many elderly people “who are much less sensitive to issues such as civil rights, the labor crisis and climate change,” says Anna Bonalume, a journalist who Salvini follows closely.
Opposition parties are in turmoil.
“We have never faced such an attack on democratic civilization as that of Meloni’s government,” Giuseppe De Marzo, national coordinator of the Even Numbers Network of civil society groups, told AFP during a recent protest against the bill outside parliament.
The opposition Five Star Movement condemned it as a “highly oppressive measure with the explicit intention of intimidating political and social dissent.”
The bill also aims to lift the ban on imprisoning pregnant women or women with a child under one year old and to punish prisoners who protest against their conditions.
According to the Council of Europe, Italy is the sixth worst European country for prison overcrowding, with 109 prisoners for every 100 places.
But the law would make it a crime to demonstrate in a prison, even if there is “passive resistance” such as disobeying an order.
On the other hand, the legislation proposes filming police interrogations.
“The security law is a real attack on democracy and the rule of law,” the Green and Left Alliance said.
The secretary general of the centre-left More Europe, MP Riccardo Magi, called it “ideological madness”.
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