The Italian government on Thursday approved a decree to tackle juvenile delinquency, allowing the detention of children as young as six, following a series of crimes committed by groups of youths.
The decree was passed by the Council of Ministers a week after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited Caivano, a suburb of the city of Naples in southwestern Italy, known for its high crime rate and drug trafficking.
In July, two 12-year-old cousins were allegedly raped repeatedly by six local youths in Caivano.
During the visit, Meloni pledged to improve security in Caivano and to rehabilitate an abandoned and dilapidated sports complex where some of the alleged violations took place.
The decree includes funding for rehabilitation and a provision to appoint a special safety commissioner for Caivano.
Meloni’s right-wing government, which came to power last year, has tried to show its toughness on crime. One of the new executive’s first acts was to pass a decree banning “rave” parties.
Before her visit to Caivano, the prime minister received death threats, in part due to Italy’s phasing out of the minimum survivor’s income.
The social media posts said that local residents had to “greet fisherman Meloni with rotten tomatoes because he took away survival income from the group of people living in precarious conditions in these areas.”
Another entry says he expected Meloni to leave his visit with physical marks on his body, “to understand the trouble he caused.”
After the visit was announced, social media revealed several harassing posts against Meloni under the pretext of cutting public support to sectors of the population receiving minimal survival income.
The threatening messages provoked solidarity reactions from various political circles, from the right to the left.
Source: DN
