Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi on
Friday told Italy's big three trade unions that he will support
parliamentary changes to a new anti-rave decree that has been
criticised as possibly crimping the freedom to protest and
setting too harsh penalties of up to six years in jail, thus
also envisaging the possible use of wiretaps against protesters.
The government rushed the rave criminalisation decree through
after a three-day rave at Modena to try to stop people coming
from around Europe to Italian raves and to stop damage to
property.
Opposition parties called it a "freedom-killing" and
"baton-wielding law" that might be used to infringe the right to
protest, something which Premier Giorgia Meloni expressly
denied.
Pinatedosi said he had told CGIl, CISL and UIL Friday that "in
parliament, I will support any modification aimed at better
stating, if it were necessary, the boundaries of the new crime.
"With an eye to effectively acting on the deterrence side, the
crux of he new measures is the compulsory seizure of the
material used to put on the rave party".
Before the passage of the decree, police at Modena already
seized sound systems and encouraged the thousands of ravers to
clean up their rubbish.
But the new decree makes it obligatory to confiscate sound
systems and other staging material.
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