Lombardy's regional council on
Tuesday approved a referendum on a partial repeal of the
so-called Merlin law, which outlawed brothels in 1958.
The idea behind the repeal is to take prostitutes off the
streets and bring them to work in a safer environment behind
closed doors.
Those in favor of the referendum, which was proposed by the
anti-immigrant Northern League, included Silvio Berlusconi's
center-right Forza Italia party and the anti-establishment
5-Star Movement, with the New Center Right and the center-left
Democratic Party opposing.
Center-right lawmakers said the issue was a ''battle to
overcome an obsolete and hypocritical law''.
Sponsored by Socialist Senator Lina Merlin, the 1958 law
was passed over strenuous opposition from right-wing and
monarchist parties.
It abolished State regulation of prostitution and made
exploiting prostitutes a crime.
Merlin modeled her law on the example of French activist
and ex-prostitute Marthe Richard, who got similar legislation
passed in her country in 1946. She also sought to incorporate
the principles of a 1949 UN convention against human trafficking
and the exploitation of sex workers.
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