Italy’s government continues to expand the Green Pass – politics


The “Green Pass” will soon be valid everywhere in Italy, step by step. After the certification requirement in restaurants, cinemas and stadiums as well as on national trains, buses, in airplanes and on ferries, the Council of Ministers has now determined the handling of the Green Pass in schools, universities and old people’s homes. All in less than a month. And yet, Prime Minister Mario Draghi is not moving fast enough. He would have liked to immediately extend the obligation to the entire state civil service apparatus and to companies in the private sector, in order to convince even the last vaccine-hesitators to vaccinate. Now this major expansion should be on the agenda next week.

Within the government majority, only Matteo Salvini, head of the right-wing populist Lega, is holding the brakes. He is resisting the upheaval in the balance of power in the right-wing camp in favor of his rival and allies, the opposition leader Giorgia Meloni from the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia. Salvini would also have wanted to fight the latest changes so that Meloni cannot distinguish itself in the small camp of the Italian “No Vax” and “No Pass”. In the vote in the Chamber of Deputies, however, the Lega voted with the government, and the Council of Ministers lasted less than an hour: none of Salvini’s ministers wanted to disagree. The maneuvering of the party leader is also getting on the nerves of many small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in northern Italy, who are regular clients of the Lega.

And so the Green Pass is now also being introduced in schools. With the exception of the students themselves, when entering elementary and secondary schools, everyone must show a certificate that shows them that they have been vaccinated, recovered or have just been tested. In addition to the teachers, this includes the staff in the canteens, the cleaning staff and the parents of the children. At universities that will start operating in the coming weeks, the obligation applies to everyone: lecturers, students and employees. Anyone who violates the regulation faces fines of up to 1,000 euros. Teachers and professors who work without a valid Green Pass will be suspended. In old people’s homes, the government goes even further: From October 10th, all employees there must be vaccinated, not just doctors and nurses.

“Too much philosophy is bad for health,” commented the intellectual debate

The appeal of 400 professors and university employees who campaigned against the Green Pass caused some excitement. That’s only about one percent of the professorships, and their objection is basically legal subtlety, but the newspapers are now negotiating the initiative in major debates. The appeal could be summarized as follows: The signatories complain that the state is restricting the rights of citizens – such as going to the university without a Green Pass – even though they do not violate any applicable law. This is absurd, says its most prominent representative, the Turin historian Alessandro Barbero, an expert on medieval and military history, also known from television. But he does not want to be seen as an opponent of vaccinations, he has been vaccinated himself: “If there were an appeal for mandatory vaccination: I would sign it.”

The accusation that the Green Pass is not legally legitimized is questionable because it is based on the emergency law voted on by Italy’s parliament and on cabinet decrees that parliament has to approve. Above all, the critics of Barbero & Co. accuse them of confusing people with their aloof intellectual talk and thus giving a boost to the “No Vax”. The newspaper noted satirically La Stampa on: “Too much philosophy is bad for your health.”

.



Source link