Premier Mario Draghi on Thursday
reiterated a plea for all Italians to get vaccinated against
COVID-19 and voiced "solidarity" with those who had fallen
victim to the "odious violence" of anti-vaxxers.
Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and top health officials have
received repeated death threats because of their pro-vax
stances.
"I want to express full solidarity to all those who have been
subjected to violence on the part of anti-vaxxers, a
particularly hateful and cowardly violence when it is directed
against those who are in the front line against the pandemic,"
Draghi said.
"I reiterate the invitation to get vaccinated, an act towards
oneself and towards others", he said.
Some 80% of Italians will be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the
end of September, Draghi told the press conference. "We are
already at 70% completely vaccinated," he said.
Draghi said the application of Green Pass vaccine passports was
going well because "we were well-prepared" to implement it.
He said Italy could face its post-COVID reopening "with
tranquility" and noted that 91.5% of school teachers had had at
least the first COVID jab.
Draghi added that the economy was growing better than expected
and there had been good jobs figures.
"The real challenge now is to maintain the growth rate," he
said.
The government had a full agenda ahead of it including new
measures to boost competition and justice reform, the premier
said.
"Then we will have to face the fundamental problem of active
employment policies. It is to be expected that many sectors will
have to restructure."
Draghi was speaking after intragovernmental tensions rose
Thursday after a rightwing League MP voted against the
government's Green Pass vaccine passport on Wednesday night.
Claudio Borghi voted against the government having made the
passport compulsory for long-distance trains and buses and
domestic airline flights, a move that has sparked widespread
protests by anti-vaxxers.
On Thursday Borghi tried to row back his vote telling La Stampa
newspaper: "The Green Pass is substantially a disguised
obligation. It was not a vote against the Green Pass, but one to
improve it".
Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader Enrico Letta slammed
Borghi's vote saying "it is a choice that puts the League out of
the government majority. Clarification is needed".
The nationalist League retorted "It's Letta who is out of this
world!"
League leader Matteo Salvini said "if the State imposes the
Green Pass, let it also guarantee rapid COVID tests, free for
all".
The government's COVID-19 Green Pass vaccine passport became
compulsory for travel on long-distance trains, buses and
domestic airplanes on Wednesday amid an alert for announced
protests by anti-vaxxers.
Police heightened security at train stations overnight against
the anti-vaxxers, who had threatened to block trains Wednesday
afternoon.
But the planned protests largely failed to materialise, apart
from a 30-strong demo outside Rome's Termini Station including
militants from the far-right Forza Nuova movement.
In Naples only two demonstrators came to the main rail station
while in Genoa about a dozen protesters turned out, and in Turin
one man was arrested.
In Rimini, an anti-vax stronghold, just a handful of 'No Green
Pass' protesters made it to the station.
Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese had said there would be a
zero tolerance policy against anyone found guilty of trying to
interrupt a public service, which is a crime in Italy. Foreign
Minister Di Maio, who has received death threats on social media
for his pro-vax stances, warned that "blocking the possibility
of moving means repressing freedom".
Trade unions had also warned against the planned blockade saying
"anyone who decides to interrupt services, in the name of the
freedom to not get vaccinated, will not have our support".
Italian anti-vaxxers posted death threats against 5-Star
Movement (M5S) bigwig Di Maio in Telegram chat rooms on Tuesday.
"Another rat to be executed", "we need lead", and "you must
die", were some of the messages.
Postal police have started examining illegal activities of
anti-vaxxers on the Telegram portal, in their threats against
pro-vaccine officials and journalists.
Lamorgese said Wednesday the government will beef up measures to
protect people against Web-based hate after a spate of attacks
by anti-vaxxers against doctors, journalists and politicians
including Di Maio.
Rightwing leaders like the League's Salvini have said that while
they condemn violence, they understand the anti-vaxxers' anger
and no one should be forced to get the COVID jab.
There have been a number of violent protests and other incidents
involving anti-vaxxers in Italy recently.
On Sunday night a top virologist, Matteo Bassetti, was accosted
by a 46-year-old man who has been cited for issuing serious
threats.
The man reportedly came across Bassetti in the street and
started following him, filming him on his phone and shouting at
him: "You're going to kill all of us with these vaccines and
we're going to make you pay".
Meanwhile in Rome Monday, a video journalist from La Repubblica
daily was attacked by a protester at an anti-Green Pass sit-in
outside the Education Ministry. And a pro-Green Pass teacher
received a bullet in the mail.
The Green Pass had already been obligatory for indoor venues
like restaurants, cinemas, theatres, gyms and swimming pools.
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