ROME — Giorgia Meloni may have convinced the European establishment that she is the respectable, even vanilla, face of nationalist right-wing politics, but a crackdown on street protests at home is amplifying concerns about Italy’s increasingly illiberal drift.
In mid-September, the Italian parliament’s lower house approved a new “security bill” that takes aim at climate activists by criminalizing the obstruction of roads and railways, with offenders facing up to two years in jail. If approved by the Senate, opponents claim it would effectively ban street protests in Italy.
For the government, which already raised penalties for damaging artworks to €60,000 following high-profile climate protests at Rome’s Trevi Fountain and Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” it’s a way to to prevent headaches such as the G7 demonstrations in Turin in April, where protesters blocked a highway and set fire to photos of world leaders.
But the restrictions on peaceful protest affected by the bill, which also increases sentences for those resisting police and prolongs prison time for up to eight years for inmates who take part in action such as hunger strikes, has led to it being dubbed the “anti-Gandhi” law.
