Since then, the government has made it easier to jail teenagers, pregnant women and mothers with newborns, introduced automatic detention for migrants, and limited reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights by allowing pro-life organizations into abortion clinics, banning surrogacy and denying birth certificates for the children of gay parents.
The Antigone association, which defends the rights of incarcerated people, said: “The government has decided to manage social issues in the most illiberal possible way, using the penal system, rather than [using] dialogue, and resources, that you would expect in a democracy with the rule of law.”
Ahead of the security bill’s introduction last week, Meloni declared security to be her number one priority. Molteni said the reason for this is that security “is the precondition for growth and investment” and protects the elderly and fragile.
But Riccardo Noury of Amnesty International, told POLITICO that last week’s bill reinforces the maxim that, “in order to provide security, you need to give up rights.”
Environmental protesters feel particularly harried by the government, which has repeatedly labeled campaigners “eco vandals’ and has harnessed Italy’s powerful anti-mafia investigative powers to monitor activists. Giacomo Baggio of the Last Generation climate protest group faces a curfew between 8:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.and a two-year ban on leaving his city of residence, pending a hearing in October, after filing a complaint against the police for assault during a protest.
Lara Ghiglione, secretary of the CGIL trade union, said the government is incapable of responding to the real needs of citizens, instead introducing repressive measures that indicate an “authoritarian drift.”