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.
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