Green light on security decree, legal protections for law enforcement. Sit-ins and clashes in Rome

Take away the points most indigestible to the Quirinal - from the jail for pregnant women to the ban on buying a phone sim for irregular migrants - and the security bill becomes a decree. Approved in a Council of Ministers that lasted half an hour. "No blitz," assured Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, replying to the opposition's accusations: these are "necessary regulations that we can no longer postpone in order to respect the commitments made with citizens and with those who are called upon every day to defend our security. The measure is made up of 34 articles, ranging from a clampdown on begging to aggravating circumstances for scams on the elderly, from flash evictions for houses to the authorisation for undercover intelligence agents to direct terrorist groups, from the restriction on hemp cultivation to economic support for the legal expenses of agents and military personnel facing criminal proceedings.

The opposition protests. "With the security decree we are facing criminal populism that bends Parliament," accuses Francesco Boccia (PD). Angelo Bonelli (Avs) speaks of a 'coup d'état', while for the Cinquestelle 'it is a disgrace'.

While the Italian Cabinet voted on the decree, clashes between police forces and protesters in Piazza del Pantheon in Rome against the security decree took place. Security forces pushed back protesters who tried to force a blockade towards the Palazzo Chigi after throwing bottles.

"These are necessary regulations that we can no longer postpone. That is why, in agreement with Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvini, we have decided to transform the text of the security package currently being examined by Parliament, including the improvements I have just mentioned, into a decree-law, which will therefore be immediately operational and will come into force immediately". Thus, we learn, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaking in the Council of Ministers that approved the regulation. "It is a choice,' she added, 'for which we take responsibility, aware that we could no longer wait and that it was a priority to give answers to citizens and ensure our men and women in uniform the protections they deserve. Some called it a 'short cut', some even a 'blitz'. Well, I think it is neither, but simply a choice that the government has legitimately decided to make, in order to respect the commitments made to citizens and to those who are called upon every day to defend our security'.

In the security decree approved by the Council of Ministers, there is a 'specific legal protection in favour of the personnel of the defence, security and public rescue sector. In other words, our police officers and military personnel who should be investigated or charged for facts inherent to their service will be able to continue working and the state will bear their legal costs, up to a maximum of ten thousand euros for each stage of the proceedings. This is a sacrosanct rule that our police forces have been waiting for for a long time, and it is our duty to ensure them," said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, speaking in the Council of Ministers. "Legal protection is an economic support to members of the police force, it does not mean immunity to the forces of law and order, it is an economic support but it is not immunity," said Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi at the post-Council of Ministers press conference.