Government 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 Luigi 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.
Interior MInister Luciana 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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