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POLITICS

Salvini wants Italy’s ‘little ethnic shops’ to close at 9pm

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has proposed a mandatory 9pm closing time for what he called "little ethnic shops", which he claimed were a haven for drug dealers.

Salvini wants Italy's 'little ethnic shops' to close at 9pm
Matteo Salvini claimed his proposal wasn't meant to target foreign business owners. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

Italy's late-night corner shops, many of which are run by Bangladeshi, Indian or other immigrants, have become “a meeting place for drug dealers and people who cause trouble”, the interior minister claimed.

His new law and order decree, most of which is aimed at making it easier to deport foreigners who commit crimes or don't have permission to stay, will include a measure that obliges “little ethnic shops” to shut their doors at 9pm, he announced via his Facebook page.

“It's not a move against foreign shops, just to limit abuses,” said Salvini, who is also Italy's deputy prime minister and head of the League party.

Retail association Confesercenti warned that it would be discriminatory to single out certain business owners and not others. 

“Whoever has a commercial activity has rights and responsibilities: the responsibility to respect the rules and the right to remain open, whether your business is run by foreigners or by Italians,” said the association's secretary general, Mauro Bussoni.

READ ALSO: Tuscan city bans fast food, sex shops, and non-Italian shop signs

Meanwhile consumer association Codacons pointed out the value of late-night stores to shoppers, who have the chance to pick up anything from snacks to laundry detergent into the small hours.

However, Codacons president Carlo Rienzi said he was in favour of closing corner shops in cases when they cause disorder, and categorically in the historic centre of cities, “because their presence contributes to urban decay and mars the artistic beauty”. 

Such decisions are usually left to local councils, some of which have taken measures to prevent certain businesses from operating in protected zones. Earlier this year the council of Pistoia in Tuscany ruled that shops in the city centre must write their signs in the Roman alphabet as part of measures to protect the medieval town's “authenticity”. 

“Tourists who come to Pistoia don't come to have lunch in a kebab shop, to see a money transfer shop, nor to buy a canned drink from a 24/7 vending machine,” Mayor Alessandro Tomasi was quoted as saying at the time, adding: “We don't want foreign shops, we don't want mini-markets, we don't want money transfer services.”

More recently Italy's other deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio of the Five Star Movement, proposed to return to the days when shops weren't allowed to open on Sundays, saying that seven-day-a-week trading was “destroying Italian families”.

READ ALSO: Italian government seeks to keep shops closed on Sundays


Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP
 

TERRORISM

Italy on maximum terror alert over Easter after Moscow attack

Italy was to increase surveillance in busy areas ahead of the Easter holidays and following the bombing of a Moscow concert hall, ministers agreed on Monday.

Italy on maximum terror alert over Easter after Moscow attack

Italy’s national committee for public security, chaired by Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, on Monday said anti-terrorism monitoring in Italy must be strengthened ahead of the Easter holidays, with more surveillance to be carried out at popular tourist spots and at “sensitive sites”.

The committee agreed on “the importance of continuing monitoring activity, including online, by police and intelligence forces for the identification of possible risk situations” in Italy, reported news agency Ansa.

The security meeting was convened following the terrorist attack in Moscow on Friday where armed men opened fire and set the building ablaze, killing at least 133 people.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani had stressed to the public on Sunday that Italy faced “no concrete risk” and said the country’s security and law enforcement services were “always on the alert to prevent any attack.”

“During the Easter holidays you will need to be very careful. We will always do the utmost to ensure the safety of citizens and tourists,” Tajani said, speaking on national broadcaster Rai’s current affairs show Restart.

READ ALSO: Terror alerts: Should I be worried about travelling to Italy?

The fight against terrorism “has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine,” the minister continued.

“We support Ukraine” as an invaded country in which international law has been violated, he said, “but as the Italian government we have expressed our condemnation of the attack [in Moscow] and closeness to the families of the victims and the survivors”.

Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano said on the same programme that the main terrorist threat Italy faced at the moment was mainly from “lone wolves” and “not so much from organised groups.”

“I believe that a group like the one that acted in the Moscow attack, which must have been trained and had logistical support, would be intercepted sooner in Italy,” he said.

“The most worrying threat” in Italy was online recruitment, he said, noting that propaganda was closely monitored.

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