Meloni’s street protest crackdown prompts concerns of growing repression in Italy

ROME — Giorgia Meloni may have persuaded the European establishment that she is the respectable, even vanilla, face of nationalist right-wing politics, but a crackdown on street protests at home is amplifying concerns about Italy’s increasingly illiberal drift.

Last Wednesday the Italian parliament’s lower house approved a new “security bill” — which takes aim at climate activists by criminalizing the obstruction of roads and railways, with offenders facing up to two years in jail. If approved by the Senate, opponents claim it would effectively ban street protests in Italy.

For the government, which already raised penalties for damaging artworks to €60,000 following high-profile climate protests at Rome’s Trevi Fountain and Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” it’s a way to to prevent headaches such as the G7 demonstrations in Turin in April, where protesters blocked a highway and set fire to photos of world leaders.

But the restrictions on peaceful protest effected by the bill, which also increases sentences for those resisting police and prolongs prison time for up to eight years for inmates who take part in action such as hunger strikes, has led to it being dubbed the “anti-Gandhi” law.

Undersecretary for the Interior Ministry, Nicola Molteni batted away criticism of the move, telling POLITICO that this government has guaranteed the right to protest “more than any other.”

“This government has never denied permission for or banned any protest unless it risked putting in danger the public order of our country,” he said, adding that the right to protest must not impede “on the rights of others to work, to have transport, to have emergency services. This enters in a perimeter of illegality that cannot be tolerated.” 

But as Meloni stares down the barrel of a complicated fall, with a budget to negotiate as Europe tightens the screws, misbehaving coalition partners, a Cabinet sex scandal, and plausible defeat in regional elections, critics say she is falling back on a classic trick from the right wing playbook — distracting voters with a crackdown on law and order.

“This government is drifting in a repressive direction, limiting peaceful protest and dissent and pushing Italy in a direction outside the perimeter of a liberal democracy, toward a democraship in the style of Orbán,” said Laura Boldrini, former speaker and MP for the center-left Democratic Party.

Focus on security

The very first law passed by Meloni’s government after taking power in 2022, took aim at illegal raves, punishing organizers with up to six years of jail time.

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.”

Crumbling pillars

Despite Meloni’s public commitment to democracy abroad, her actions at home have raised concerns about the erosion of democratic principles — not only the right to protest, but also media freedom, judicial independence and even limits on executive power.

In its July rule-of-law report, the European Commission expressed concern over freedom of the press, urging Italy to resume reforms to better protect journalists’ sources and ensure funding for public media. It follows a government takeover of public broadcasting company RAI, whose journalists accuse the government of “suffocating control.” In response Meloni attacked leftist journalists.

Judges and prosecutors have come under fire, with the government attacking prosecutors who asked for a six-year jail term for Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini for holding migrants hostage. The National Association of Magistrates said the attacks were “in open violation of the principle of separation of powers … ignored the rules that govern trials, undermining trust in democratic institutions and putting undue pressure on judges.” 

Meloni has also proposed a constitutional reform to permit the direct election of the prime minister which, if approved by a referendum, would concentrate further power with her.

It’s a trend that doesn’t sit easily with opposition MP Boldrini. “When the government takes control of the public TV RAI, when it attempts to reduce freedom of the press and the freedom of judiciary, when the far-right majority approves the so-called security law and when civil rights are reduced … one has to ask if we are still in a liberal democracy.”

Federica Di Sario reported from Brussels.