ITALY BRACES FOR CLASHES AS ANTI-VACCINE PASS PROTESTS ENTER SECOND WEEK

Fri 15 October 2021:

Italy is braced for protests today as its COVID health pass becomes mandatory for all workers.

Thousands of people protested the move in Rome on Saturday, and more protests are scheduled across the country in the coming 48 hours.

Employees will be required to show their pass to enter their workplace under the new rule. The pass verifies that the person has been vaccinated, has recovered from COVID-19 in the last six months, and/or has tested negative lately.

Noncompliance can result in sanctions for both employees and employers. If a public employee fails to show up for work five times without a pass, they may be fired.

The pass is already required in Italy to enter museums, theatres, gyms and indoor restaurants, as well as to take long-distance trains and buses or domestic flights.

More than 85% of Italians over the age of 12 have gotten at least one shot, but up to three million more are at risk of being denied admission to their places of employment if they are not vaccinated.

Dockers in Trieste, a key port in the northeast, have threatened to shut down operations, and road transport may be disrupted.

According to Ivano Russo, director-general of Confetra, the Italian General Confederation of Transport and Logistics, “between 25 and 30 percent” of the 900,000 truck drivers, couriers, and warehouse workers do not have a health permit.

The government has offered free tests to dockers in Trieste, while some terminal operators in the port of Genoa offer to pay themselves.

“The real problem with the Green Pass for the port of Genoa, and in general for all ports, will be road transport,” Roberto Gulli, of the Uil union, told La Repubblica newspaper. “There could be chaos on Friday.”

Meanwhile, the administration is determined to avoid a repeat of the violence that occurred last weekend, which was blamed on a small far-right party known as Forza Nuova, which experts believe infiltrated the protests.

The health pass has been defended by Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government as a measure to avoid more lockdowns in Italy, one of the European countries hardest hit by the pandemic, which has killed over 130,000 people and caused an 8.9% loss in GDP in 2020.

According to the latest IMF prediction, Italy will increase 5.8% this year thanks to a vaccination program that has kept infection rates low.

(with agencies)

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