No automatism, no fixed parameters: Prime Minister Mario Draghi leaves a very narrow gap to the possibility of easing the anti-contagion measures in April. At the restaurant, summarizes a government source, it is difficult to return before May: Italy red and orange for the whole month, says the decree. But the battle between the ministers, very tense at the CDM table, is already shifting to the interpretation of the passage which provides for possible exceptions. Yes, the possibility is there, but “no relaxation is automatic” underlines a “rigorist” minister.
But after the CDM, the “aperturist” ministers of Lega, Forza Italia and Italia viva reveal satisfaction: the gap opened, is the thesis, is enough to ask, immediately after Easter, more openings if the contagion data will continue to drop and those vaccines to increase. “Let’s verify on the basis of the data,” Draghi said to the ministers gathered in the CDM, keeping firm the line taken from the beginning of his mandate on the front of the fight against contagion. The mechanism studied after a long mediation foresees that it is a resolution of the Council of Ministers to possibly arrange greater openings in derogation, if the epidemiological curve and an acceleration of vaccinations allow, starting from those for frail people. But on this point the discussion among the ministers is heated. Roberto Speranza illustrates the provision. Then the ministers, for their respective parties, put the opposing interpretations of the law on the record. And at the end of the meeting everyone divulges his version, in a clash that suggests weeks that are still very turbulent for the vast majority. For the Democratic Party Dario Franceschini speaks and brings the line of rigor, to be able to reopen safely when the data will allow it, and at the end of the CDM Andrea Orlando says he is satisfied: “There will be no slackening” the Dems say they are convinced.
The League, on the other hand, had asked for “more”, an automatism, but affirms that Draghi promises to be checked every week: it is a guarantee: «The decisions will pass through the CDM. There is in fact a commissioner of Speranza and of the CTS »exult the leaguers. Salvini flaunts his activism from the outside and is seen entering Palazzo Chigi in a meeting in progress: continuous contacts with Draghi and a phone call from the Northern League leader to the Minister of Health. The Premier League entrusts the leagues, who promise to return to pressing as early as next week. But according to more than one “rigorist” minister, the line of the League ministers at the CDM table would not have been as vehement as that expressed outside the secretary. The M5s ministers, who in this phase with Leu and Pd take the “rigorist” line, in the CDM retort in tone: “You of the League who, in Conte’s time, asked not to deprive Parliament, now invokes openings on the basis of a resolution of the Cdm? “. Forza Italia sings victory: “Targeted openings will be possible.”
And the minister Elena Bonetti also places Italy alive in this camp: “After Easter – the minister would have said on the CDM – the reopening of those activities should be considered that can be safely reopened, without waiting for the end of April, with scientific rigor and choices responsible, aiming to reopen as soon as possible ».
To open or not to reopen, this is the debate, which overshadows the many other innovations of the decree in the political confrontation, such as the opening of schools, the penal shield for vaccinators and the obligation to vaccinate for health professionals. “Speranza and Franceschini in the CDM opposed the exceptions, ours is a victory, in the end they were very nervous,” said an “aperturist” minister at the end of the meeting. “They can say what they want but the structure of the decree does not change, the system is rigorous,” says a member of the opposing front. In short, a ‘hot’ April is being prepared, in the debate within the majority. Two fronts, the openings but also the next Sostegni decree, with the economic measures for the sectors that have closed. The center-right is already asking for several tens of billions of allocation and selective compensation. The center-left uses more cautious tones but hopes for a full-bodied and quick intervention. At least twenty billion must be allocated, M5s sources say. On how to use them, a new tug-of-war could open up.
The Democratic Party rises up against Salvini
«The League’s attacks on Minister Speranza and the CTS are unspeakable and unworthy. The news coming from France deserves the utmost respect and consideration both by those in government and by those who would like to reopen everything soon. Hasty reopenings risk getting out of hand due to the extreme contagiousness of the English variant. Those who do not want to look at reality may realize that the devastating effects of the errors of underestimating the situation precipitate in a few days ». Thus Francesco Boccia, deputy and member of the National Secretariat Fr.