Italy's Right-wing Uses Questionable Tactics To Defeat New Law To Protect The Disabled, Women And The LGBT Sector

• Published date: 02 November 2021
• Subject Matter: Government, Public Sector, Government Contracts, Procurement & PPP
• Law Firm: Giambrone & Partners
• Author: Giambrone & Partners LLP

Italy's 315-member Senate took a significant step back this week when a Disegno Di Legge (DDL), (the equivalent to a bill in UK parliamentary proceedings) aimed at hate crime, introduced and championed by the Democratic party's Alessandro Zan, was blocked by a 154 to 131 majority, despite being approved by Italy's lower house.

The DDL was intended to extend Italy's existing penal code provisions to include the categories relating to the highly controversial gender, disability and the LGBT sector. Effectively criminalising homophobic attacks as well as attacks on the disabled and on women.

In June last year, the Vatican took the unprecedented step of appealing to the Italian government in respect of the proposed change in the law to protect vulnerable groups from physical attack, saying there was concern that such a law would infringe the Catholic church's "freedom of thought". The Vatican's unheard of actions supported the parties of the far right's contention that such a law would suppress freedom of expression and promote homosexual propaganda in schools. It was also suggested that there could be a criminal impact on the Catholic church for refusal to perform gay marriages, which have been legal since 2016, and refusing to teach gender issues in schools, despite the fact that it was repeatedly reaffirmed that the DDL only related to violent hate crimes and would not impinge on freedom of speech.

The defeat for the DDL Zan, as the bill is known, was achieved by employing a tactic known as "tagliola" which has the effect of preventing discussion, allowing anonymous voting, which effectively becomes a secret ballot. The President of the Senate sanctioned the anonymous vote, which ensures that it is impossible to know how the parliamentarians voted. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect to the entire issue was the jubilant behaviour of Matteo Salvini's far-right League and...