From self-defence to jailed pickpockets: the centre-right focuses on security for the regionals

"Thanks to the security decree wanted by the League. That's good!" League leader Matteo Salvini's tweet on X about a pickpocket arrested in Venice who remains in jail under the new rules, despite being pregnant, is just the latest stage in the derby between the League and Fratelli d'Italia on the security front.

The latter is a flag hoisted forcefully by both parties as the temperature of the electoral campaign rises ahead of the 23 and 24 November regional elections in Veneto, Campania and Puglia. This is demonstrated by the race to secure 'lightning evictions' of defaulting tenants and a new security package being studied by the government. And this is confirmed by the increasingly frequent incursions on this issue by leaders Meloni and Salvini.

Rejecting the criticism that has rained down in recent days from various members of the opposition, from the Dem mayor of Genoa Silvia Salis to M5S leader Giuseppe Conte, who accused the government of 'having done nothing on security', Meloni defended herself on Thursday in a long post in which she relaunched the government's achievements. She did so by claiming the approximately "37,400 officers" hired in the last three years and the "another 31.500 hirings" foreseen until 2027, the allocation of "a billion and a half to renew the contracts of the sector, the renewal of the contracts of the last three years for the Police Forces, with average gross monthly increases of 198 euro", but also the same security decree claimed by Salvini, as well as "harsher punishments" for attacks on agents and the increase in "garrisons in the most sensitive areas: hospitals, stations, schools and suburbs", the fight against the mafias and the Caivano model. With the final coda: 'We are remedying decades of laxity and underestimation'

Not enough. "Defence is always legitimate," the premier wrote on 5 November in a post, commenting on the case of the man who, in the province of Rovigo, wounded a burglar during an attempted home robbery and is not under investigation under the new rules on self-defence introduced in 2019 by the Conte Government 1. "A result thanks to the rules wanted by the League, to protect decent citizens," the deputy premier and Carroccio leader narrowly clarified.

Nor should we forget the bill presented on 5 November by the Fdi general staff (from the undersecretary for Justice Andrea Delmastro to the head of organisation Giovanni Donzelli) on the procedural protection of the forces of law and order. A text that aims to overcome automatic entries in the register of suspects. Not a 'shield' only for agents. But an 'erga omnes' regulation designed above all to protect the forces of law and order. And a similar proposal announced in recent days by the League with the undersecretaries of the Interior, Nicola Molteni, and Justice, Andrea Ostellari, who on the occasion have claimed the article of the Security Decree that brought to 10 thousand euro the advance of legal fees by the State for the protection of the forces of order.