From occupied houses to cannabis light, security crackdown accelerates

The Constitutional Affairs and Justice Committees of the Chamber of Deputies went fast from Tuesday to Thursday in voting on the more than 300 amendments presented to the security bill: 29 articles ranging from the protection of the police and armed forces to the liberalisation, for agents, of the possession of private weapons without a licence, from terrorism to riots in prisons and migrant centres, from the crackdown on pickpocketing and begging to tutors for victims of usury. Seven months after its approval by the Council of Ministers, the text is expected in the House for general discussion on Thursday 27th, although it cannot be ruled out that it will not be ready until the following week. In fact, the knot of the 35 amendments of the League, which had overheated the hearts and minds and which remain shelved for now, must be overcome. The commissions will resume voting on Tuesday at 11 a.m.

The decree, drawn up by the Viminal, Justice and Defence Ministry, is much awaited by the police and military forces: the government wanted to extend a helping hand to the sector, which has come under attack several times in recent months, while at the same time starting negotiations for contract renewals. Hence the regulations: sentences to be increased by a third, compared to all public officials, for those who commit violence or resistance against officers or agents of public security or the judicial police (from two to five years in prison for those who cause them personal injuries, imprisonment of up to 16 years in the case of very serious injuries), increased protection for police property and for the activities of the Guardia di Finanza at sea, increased penalties for those who do not comply with the traffic police's instructions and do not stop at the stop sign. And freedom for officers to possess private weapons off duty without a licence.

Moreover, the current administrative offence of road blocking is elevated to a crime. Prison protests become an offence punishable by up to eight years for those who organise a riot, up to five years for those who participate, while the M5S amendments proposing the abolition of the offence of rave parties, introduced with the first security decree of the Meloni government, and the prohibition of Roman salutes were rejected. The crackdown also concerns terrorism, with the new crime of 'possession of material for the purposes of terrorism and against public safety', which punishes anyone who obtains instructions to prepare or use 'deadly war devices', weapons or dangerous substances. The other offence introduced concerns the 'arbitrary occupation of property intended as someone else's home', 'enriched' by the M5S amendment, on which the government had given a favourable opinion and which was approved, which proposes to proceed ex officio when the offence is committed against a person who is incapacitated, due to age or infirmity.

Article 10 of the bill also extends the Urban Daspo by providing, inter alia, the possibility for the Questore, in cases of repetition of the sanctioned conduct, to order the prohibition of access to areas of public transport infrastructure and appurtenances, such as stations, also to persons reported or convicted in the previous five years, and also with a non-definitive sentence. All the opposition amendments that aimed, among other things, to limit the ban to those with final convictions were rejected. The Avs group leader in the Justice Commission, Devis Dori, spoke of 'right-wing securitarian fever' that 'produces monsters'. "On the Daspo - underlines the Pentastellata Valentina D'Orso - the majority unveils its guaranteeism of convenience and selective: with the rule they propose, a common citizen hit by any complaint, perhaps even by a neighbour who dislikes him, can suffer a limitation to the constitutionally guaranteed right of freedom of movement". The rule was defended by the undersecretary of the Interior Nicola Molteni: it is, he explained, measures that do not envisage imprisonment and that can be decided by the Questore 'in a considered manner and linked to the possible social dangerousness of the subject', in line with the 'Daspo Willy' born during the Conte 2 government.

The Government has proposed an amendment to the Security Bill that, by amending the law supporting the hemp industry for industrial use, with a Thc content of less than 0.2%, prohibits the cultivation and sale of inflorescences, even of cannabis with a low Thc content, for uses other than those expressly indicated in the law itself, and therefore the permitted industrial uses. The trade or sale of inflorescences is punished with the rules of the Testo Unico on narcotic substances, putting light cannabis on an equal footing with non-light cannabis. The proposal has not yet been put to the vote, but it is among those against which the oppositions (and the production sector itself) are raising their shields.