Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

Italian senator suspended for going to work without Covid green pass

An Italian senator was suspended on Tuesday for ten days after entering the Senate building in Rome without a green pass, which is now required in all workplaces.

Published: 19 October 2021 18:44 CEST
Protesters in Rome demonstrate against Italy's 'green pass'.
Opponents to Italy's green pass scheme include some senators and members of parliament. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

Laura Granato, a former member of the once anti-establishment Five StarMovement (M5S) who has since joined a breakaway group, will be deprived of her daily allowance for the ten days.

The 51-year-old was allowed into the Senate but later reported for refusing to show her “green pass”, the Italian health certificate which offers proof of a coronavirus vaccination, negative test result or recent recovery from Covid-19.

READ ALSO: How Italy is enforcing the new workplace green pass rules

She had been due to attend a parliamentary meeting on the Green Pass, which she described to reporters as a “certificate of obedience”.

Since Friday, the pass has been required of all public and private sector workers under some of the toughest health measures in the world.

The green pass is intended to boost vaccination rates, keep infections down and help Italy avoid the need for further economically damaging shutdowns, the government has said.

EXPLAINED: Where do you now need to show a Covid green pass in Italy?

The measure sparked pockets of protest in cities around Italy over the weekend, with the largest demonstration held by dock workers in the northeastern city of Trieste attracting around 6,500 people.

Meanwhile, more than a million Covid ‘green passes’ were downloaded on Monday as Italy began its first working week under the newly extended health certificate rules.

While the latest extension of Italy’s health pass requirement has prompted a slight increase in vaccinations, the download figures showed the vast majority chose to take a Covid test instead – around nine in ten of the passes released on Monday came from a swab rather than a jab.

Almost 86 percent of Italians over the age of 12 have received at least one vaccine dose and 81 percent are fully vaccinated, but at least three million workers are believed to remain unvaccinated.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLITICS

Italy’s Meloni criticises her own government’s ‘Big Brother tax’ law

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday criticised an "invasive" tax evasion measure reintroduced by her own government, sparking accusations of incompetence from opposition lawmakers.

Published: 22 May 2024 17:12 CEST
Italy's Meloni criticises her own government's 'Big Brother tax' law

The measure, allowing Italy’s tax authorities to check bank accounts to look for discrepancies between someone’s declared income and their spending, was abolished in 2018 but its return was announced in the government’s official journal of business this week.

Meloni had previously been strongly critical of the ‘redditometro’ measure, and took to social media on Wednesday to defend herself from accusations of hypocrisy.

“Never will any ‘Big Brother tax’ be introduced by this government,” she wrote on Facebook.

Meloni said she had asked deputy economy minister Maurizio Leo – a member of her own far-right Brothers of Italy party, who introduced the measure – to bring it to the next cabinet meeting.

“And if changes are necessary, I will be the first to ask,” she wrote.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who heads the right-wing Forza Italia party, also railed against what he called an “obsolete tool”.

He called for it to be revoked, saying it did not fight tax evasion but “oppresses, invades people’s lives”.

Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right League party, said it was “one of the horrors of the past” and deserved to stay there.

Opposition parties revelled in the turmoil within the governing coalition, where tensions are already high ahead of European Parliament elections in which all three parties are competing with each other.

“They are not bad, they are just incapable,” said former premier Matteo Renzi, now leader of a small centrist party.

Another former premier, Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte, asked of Meloni: “Was she asleep?”

The measure allows tax authorities to take into account when assessing someone’s real income elements including jewellery, life insurance, horse ownership, gas and electricity bills, pets and hairdressing expenses.

According to the government, tax evasion and fraud cost the Italian state around 95 to 100 billion euros each year.

SHOW COMMENTS