Feminicides, Bongiorno: now strict enforcement of the rules. Semenzato, gender motive enhanced

"Behind every woman killed there is a system that has underestimated, postponed, ignored. Today, with the approval of the feminicide law, we no longer want to do this. Majority and opposition present themselves united to give a powerful signal, for an institutional awareness: certain deaths are not only individual, but concern everyone. Criminal law becomes an instrument of social transformation. Naming this crime means breaking the silence, restoring dignity to the victims and above all unmasking the specific and repeated nature of this type of violence. We affirm that women's lives matter, that their freedom is non-negotiable, that love can never be a justification for control or destruction. It is a clear, strong signal of a State that chooses to be on the side of the victims,' commented Forza Italia senator and vice-president of the Senate, Licia Ronzulli, speaking in the House on the feminicide bill.

"With the unanimous approval in the Senate of the bill on feminicide, Italy takes a big step forward in the fight against violence against women, because it not only introduces a new and necessary offence but also establishes a principle: the State will never again offer any tolerance and understanding to those who kill women to punish them for their independence, freedom, and life choices," says Mara Carfagna, secretary of Noi Moderati. "It is true," she adds, "that in order to protect the rights of equality, repression is not enough, but civic action and education in schools are also needed, but we cannot underestimate the value of a law that will help erase the old 'she asked for it' from the courts and public discourse.

"The entry into public language of words depicting violence against women is the fruit of a years-long battle. Words like discrimination, prevarication, domination, restriction of freedom are the sign of a culture to be beaten. Today even the majority speaks of stereotypes to be beaten and this is a step forward,' says PD senator Anna Rossomando. "We know that the crime itself will not be enough to stop the phenomenon education on affectivity and sexuality from primary school and an investment in the training of school personnel are priorities and on these issues it is necessary to intervene with a law measure on which we cannot wait any longer".

"At one time, in criminal law, the reference to women was used to mitigate penalties, as in the case of honour killings or reparative marriages. With this law, killing a woman as a woman will carry the maximum penalty: life imprisonment. It is an epoch-making step, a small great Copernican revolution in our criminal law,' commented the president of the Autonomy Group Julia Unterberger. "The introduction of an independent case of feminicide, punishable by life imprisonment, is a clear and necessary signal: violence against women, as women, is a crime that our society is no longer willing to tolerate. The new crime makes it possible to overcome ambiguities of interpretation and controversial jurisprudential choices, such as in the case of the 75 stab wounds to Giulia Cecchettin, assessed as inexperience and not cruelty.

'The unanimous approval of the Femicide Bill is an important signal that parliament wanted to give to the country to fight gender violence, which is a real social scourge. However, the introduction of the new crime is not enough, we need a constant commitment to prevention,' says Senator Raffaella Paita, leader of the Italia Viva group in the Senate.

For M5s senator Anna Bilotti, it is 'right that feminicide should be introduced as an autonomous crime, but much more could have been done already in this measure. The root of the problem is in a society that places men in a position of innate superiority by virtue of which they feel entitled to consider women as an object and to exercise possession over them, even to the point of depriving them of life. We will continue to fight for everything that they have not yet had the courage to do'. In line was party colleague Alessandra Maiorino who dwelt on 'male fragility. So many men still struggle to recognise women as free subjectivities. It is this that is at the root not only of feminicide, but also of the violence that many of us suffer throughout our lives without going so far as to be killed. This is why it is important to support pathways for abusive men'.

"Feminicide is not passion, it is not jealousy, it is not love. Feminicide is the outcome of a patriarchal culture, of possession and control, present at every level of our social and cultural fabric, which cannot be eradicated solely by creating an ad hoc crime or by introducing specific aggravating circumstances,' emphasises Ilaria Cucchi, Senator of the Green and Left Alliance. 'It would be very important,' she stresses, 'for gender education, education on differences and emotional life to enter fully into school curricula. The phenomenon has deep cultural roots and in order to intervene effectively, it is essential to work on the new generations'.