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POLITICS

Italian MPs slammed for claiming Covid-19 emergency welfare

Italy's political class was up in arms on Monday after reports that five lawmakers had allegedly sought to claim a "Covid Bonus" designed to help struggling Italians during the coronavirus epidemic.

Published: 10 August 2020 17:59 CEST
Italian MPs slammed for claiming Covid-19 emergency welfare
Italy's lower house of parliament in Rome. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

First reported by La Repubblica on Saturday, then splashed across other front pages, the scandal involves five unnamed MPs who are accused of applying for the €600 per month aid.

News reports said the MPs, dubbed “i furbetti del bonus” or 'the bonus schemers' in Italian headlines, came from the opposition right-wing League party, the ruling populist Five Star Movement and the centrist Italia Viva party.

READ ALSO: Face masks remain and cruise ships return: What's in Italy's new emergency decree?

Not all the MPs who applied for the bonus received it, La Repubblica subsequently reported on Monday, saying that its sources said only three had actually got the pay-out.

“The 12,439 euro net salary each month wasn't enough. Nor were the privileges and benefits parliamentarians have historically enjoyed,” the paper wrote in its original expose.

Another 2,000 elected officials on regional and city councils also claimed the aid, according to the report.

The government aid of €600 for the months of March and April and €1,000 for the month of May was intended to help self-employed and seasonal workers affected by the coronavirus lockdown. Some €6.9 billion of the aid was distributed to Italians.

To qualify, applicants needed to have to have a partita IVA (VAT number) and to be able to demonstrate that the crisis had wiped out at least two-thirds of their usual income.

READ ALSO: 'Stopgap' or life saver?: Italy's scheme to help the self-employed survive the coronavirus crisis

The MPs' dipping into the scheme, caught by a government anti-fraud body, elicited strong reaction.

“It's shameful, really indecent,” wrote Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio of the Five Star Movement on Facebook, calling for the money to be returned and the lawmakers to step down.

The head of the League, Matteo Salvini, initially said they should resign but later called for their suspension.

The Italia Viva party, founded by former prime minister Matteo Renzi, denied that any of its parliamentarians had received the bonus.

A number of local councillors came forward to say that they too had claimed the bonus or other government support during the crisis, defending themselves on the grounds that politics wasn't their only job.

Member comments

  1. Shameful, it’s a disgrace!!
    They should be named and shamed and forced to pay all the money back. And they should be made to resign.

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POLITICS

Anger as Italy allows pro-life activists into abortion clinics

The Italian parliament has passed a measure by Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government allowing anti-abortion activists to enter consultation clinics, sparking outrage from opposition parties.

Published: 24 April 2024 13:05 CEST
Anger as Italy allows pro-life activists into abortion clinics

The measure adopted by the Senate late on Tuesday evening allows regional authorities to permit groups deemed to have “a qualified experience supporting motherhood” to have access to women considering abortions at clinics run by the state-funded healthcare system.

The government says the amendment merely fulfils the original aim of the country’s 1978 law legalising abortion, which says clinics can collaborate with such groups in efforts to support motherhood.

Pressure groups in several regions led by the right are already allowed access to consultation clinics, and the measure may see more join them.

Some regions, such as Marche, which is led by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, have also restricted access to the abortion pill.

Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), slammed the new law as “a heavy attack on women’s freedom”, while Five Star Movement MPs said Italy had “chosen to take a further step backwards”.

READ ALSO: What will Italy’s right-wing election victory mean for abortion rights?

Meloni has repeatedly said she has no intention of changing the abortion law, known as Law 194, but critics say she is attempting to make it more difficult to terminate pregnancies.

There have long been concerns that the election of Meloni’s hard-right coalition would further threaten womens’ reproductive rights in Italy.

Accessing safe abortions in Italy was already challenging as a majority of gynaecologists – about 63 percent according to official 2021 figures – refuse to perform them on moral or religious grounds.

In several parts of the country, including the regions of Sicily, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Molise and the province of Bolzano, the percentage of gynaecologists refusing to perform abortions is over 80 percent.

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