Meloni’s anti-rave decree becomes the target of criticism for breach to criminalize protests

The first decree-law by the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, was barely announced, on Monday (31), and has already left jurists perplexed, in addition to stirring unionists, students and opposition politicians.

The most controversial point is the creation of a crime with the intention of fighting illegal parties, but which, due to the vague wording of the text, could mean a breach to criminalize protests.

The justification of the far-right government for the measure is to prevent the holding of rave-type events, such as the one that took place over the weekend on the outskirts of Modena, in northern Italy, with thousands of people. The party, in an abandoned warehouse, with an expected duration of three days, was organized clandestinely and, after negotiations with the police, was interrupted without confrontation.

Almost at the same time as the event was being dismantled, Meloni announced the decree-law that introduces Article 434-bis into the Italian penal code, which provides for imprisonment from 3 to 6 years and a fine of up to 10,000 euros (R$ 50.4 mil) for anyone who organizes or promotes the occupation of public and private land or buildings by more than 50 people and threatens “public order, security or health”.

For those who only participate, the penalty is less, but the decree does not specify what the punishment is.

“Faced with the umpteenth illegal rave party in Italy, with people arriving from half of Europe, the Interior Ministry acted quickly to give the signal of a state that is not short-sighted in the face of repeated violations of the law,” said the prime minister. The option to create a crime was, according to Meloni, so that the events can be framed as a threat to public safety, not only to property.

Experts consider the solution poorly formulated and disproportionate. The text, they argue, is not specific and, therefore, could be used to criminalize other types of agglomeration, such as protests, at a time when a wave of dissatisfaction with the cost of living is emerging in Europe. The decree, already in force, must be converted into law within 60 days by Parliament, where the government has a majority.

For the Union of University Students, this is a dangerous attack on the right to demonstrate. “The decree hides the legitimacy of repressive and punitive actions, including against protests in the streets, schools and workplaces”, said the students, who announced a national mobilization for the 18th.

Amnesty International, an NGO that works to defend human rights, also criticized. “The decree runs the risk of having a broad, discretionary and arbitrary application to the detriment of the right to peaceful protest.”

For Vittorio Manes, professor of criminal law at the University of Bologna, from a legal point of view, the measure is perplexing for two reasons. First, because the new crime was introduced into the penal code by means of a government decree, which should be linked to an assumption of urgency, which, according to him, is not the case. “The first perplexity is in the method. The solution could have been adopted in a much more thoughtful legislative process,” he told Sheet.

Then it has to do with merit. For the jurist, the crime is described with very generic concepts, since any gathering of more than 50 people can be considered potentially dangerous and be punished with serious sanctions. “It is a norm affected by excessive vagueness. It can be applied to a series of concrete situations that are not exactly the one to which one wants to give an answer”, he evaluates.

Regarding the government’s intentions, the professor believes that the decree is an emblematic example of a “manifest norm”. “Criminal law is symbolically used to communicate a strong response message from the state. And that is always an improper use. Criminal law must be used proportionately.”

The debate has attracted the opposition, which accuses Meloni of wanting to install a “police state”, in the words of former premier Giuseppe Conte, who is a lawyer. In addition to considering the measure disproportionate to combat clandestine raves, he criticizes the gap so that authorities can consider other agglomerations a crime.

“We expected as a first act of the government an intervention for the high bills, but instead we have a muscular display of a government imbued with a repressive ideology,” he said.

Conte made reference to another agglomeration on Sunday (30), in Predappio, the city where dictator Benito Mussolini was born and buried. As happens every year at the end of October, thousands of admirers of the fascist regime gathered there to celebrate the March on Rome, which signified the dictator’s coming to power, one hundred years ago. “The government said this meeting is a different thing [da rave de Modena]but you should know that this is a crime of apology for fascism.”

Also on Monday, two other Meloni ads came in for criticism. In the same decree-law, another article determined the end of the removal of doctors and health operators who did not take the anti-Covid vaccine. About 4,000 people will be able to return to work in hospitals and public clinics, a move that pleases anti-vaccination activists, part of the prime minister’s electoral base.

In addition, he was appointed to the post of deputy minister of Infrastructure, a portfolio headed by Matteo Salvini, deputy Galeazzo Bignami, considered a faithful ally of Meloni. In Italy, he is known for photos taken in 2005 that show him dressed in Nazi symbols, such as the swastika armband.

“It was a big bullshit. I apologized, but this photo doesn’t represent me,” he said of the episode.