COVID curfew causes first big row within Draghi govt

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 22 - The issue of whether to put back Italy's night-time curfew to prevent COVID-19 contagion from 10pm to 11pm has caused the first major row within Premier Mario Draghi's broad coalition government.
    Matteo Salvini's League, Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the centrist Italia Viva party were in favour of letting people be out of home one more hour, with the government set to start gradually easing the coronavirus restrictions next week and restaurants being allowed to serve people at outdoor tables in the evening.
    But Draghi kept a firm line that the curfew should continue to kick in at 10pm for the time being which led to the League abstaining in a vote at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday on the COVID rules that will be in force from Monday until the end of July.
    Salvini said the League did this to "give a voice to those people who want to work".
    But other parties supporting the executive, a sort of government of national unity to face the emergency caused by the pandemic, were critical.
    "I think this was an incomprehensible and irresponsible act at this moment in time," Labour Minister Andrea Orlando, a member of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), told La7 television.
    "A few hours before you agreed with a deal, then you start having a pop at that agreement and then you abstain.
    "It's not a position that meets the demands of the moment".
    Govt sources have said the start of the curfew may be put back to 11pm in the near future if the data on the spread of the coronavirus improves sufficiently. (ANSA).