Premier Giorgia Meloni said Wednesday
she was proud of a new decree criminalising rave parties and
rejected opposition suggestions it could be used to crack down
on anti-government protests.
Meloni's cabinet passed the decree, which foresees organizers of
illegal events involving more than 50 people that pose a threat
to public safety or health getting up to six years in jail and
fines of as much as 10,000 euros, on Monday in one of its first
acts after a big rave in the Modena area at the weekend.
Opposition parties have said the decree risks inhibiting freedom
as it could be used to stop demonstrations.
Meloni said "it is a measure I claim credit for and I'm proud of
because Italy, after years of governments which bowed down in
front of illegality and raves and in which Italy was the black
sheep in terms of security, will now rightly be able to
prosecute those who often arrive form all over Europe and take
part in illegal raves in which they illegally occupy private or
public areas, without respecting security and safety norms and,
even more serious, encouraging the distribution and use of
drugs.
"The allegations about (limiting) the right to demonstrate are
unfounded, and I'd like to reassure citizens that we won't deny
anyone (the right to) express their dissent".
Meloni was echoing Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi who said
the government's controversial new decree cracking down on
illegal raves will not be used to deny people the right to
protest.
"I think it's in everyone's interest to combat illegal raves,"
Piantedosi said in an interview in Monday's Corriere della Sera.
"I find it offensive that we have been attributed with the
desire to intervene in other situations in which guaranteed
Constitutional rights are being exercised in relation to
legislation that clearly does not refer to this in any way.
"The aim is to discourage events that put people in danger,
above all the participants themselves.
"The decree will be converted into law in parliament, not via
social media".
Piantedosi also commented on controversy over the failure to
break up Sunday's gathering of around 2.000 people at Predappio,
the birthplace of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. He said the
gathering was nothing more than a "circus" and stressed that it
had been conducted under the watch of the police.
However, a member of Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party,
Federico Mollicone, insisted that the new anti-rave law could be
put to other uses, citing in particular the case of illegal
squats by leftists and anarchists in sometimes hazardous
buildings for years in Rome.
He said one such squat, the Spin Lab on the Esquiline Hill, had
been "used for New Year's Eve parties to earn money, without
safety measures, three floors under ground".
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