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Former Italian PM faces investigation over Covid response

Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte is set to undergo a judicial inquiry over claims his government's response to the Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020 was too slow.

Published: 2 March 2023 09:14 CET
Former Italian PM faces investigation over Covid response
Former Italian PM Giuseppe Conte will face an investigation over his government's response to the Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020. Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP

Prosecutors in Bergamo, the northern city that was one of the epicentres of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe, targeted Conte after wrapping up their three-year inquiry, according to media reports.

Conte, now president of the populist Five Star movement, was prime minister from 2018 to 2021 and oversaw the initial measures taken to halt the spread of what would become a global pandemic.

Investigating magistrates suspect that Conte and his government underestimated the contagiousness of Covid-19 even though available data showed that cases were spreading rapidly in Bergamo and the surrounding region.

They note that in early March 2020 the government did not create a “red zone” in two areas hit hardest by the outbreak, Nembro and Alzano Lombardo, even though security forces were ready to isolate the zone from the rest of the country.

READ ALSO: ‘Not offensive’: Italian minister defends Covid testing rule for China arrivals

Red zones had already been decreed in late February for around a dozen other nearby municipalities including Codogno, the town where the initial Covid case was reportedly found.

Conte’s health minister Roberto Speranza as well as the president of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, are also under investigation, the reports said.

Bergamo prosecutors allege that according to scientific experts, earlier quarantines could have saved thousands of lives.

Conte, quoted by Il Corriere della Sera and other media outlets, said he was “unworried” by the inquiry, saying his government had acted “with the utmost commitment and responsibility during one of the most difficult moments of our republic.”

READ ALSO: Italy’s constitutional court upholds Covid vaccine mandate as fines kick in

Similar cases have been lodged against officials elsewhere, alleging that authorities failed to act quickly enough against a virus that has killed an estimated 6.8 million people worldwide since early 2020.

In January, France’s top court threw out a case against former health minister Agnes Buzyn, a trained doctor, over her allegedly “endangering the lives of others” by initially playing down the severity of Covid-19.

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POLITICS

Italy to ban lab-grown foods in bid to protect tradition

Italy's government on Tuesday approved a bill banning the use of synthetic foods, including artificial meat, which it says threatens the country's agri-food heritage.

Published: 29 March 2023 12:36 CEST
Italy to ban lab-grown foods in bid to protect tradition

“Laboratory products in our opinion do not guarantee quality, well-being and the protection of our culture, our tradition,” said Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party, at a press conference on Tuesday.

READ ALSO: Four myths about ‘traditional’ Italian food you can stop believing

Meloni’s nationalist administration has pledged to protect Italy’s food businesses from technological innovations seen as harmful, and renamed the agriculture ministry the “ministry for agriculture and food sovereignty”.

Health Minister Orazio Schillac admitted there was “no scientific evidence of possible harmful effects linked to the consumption of synthetic foods” but said the move to ban them was “based on the precautionary principle”.

Meat substitutes have long been produced, with varying degrees of success, from vegetable sources like soya, peas or beans.

The new legislation specifically targets synthetic products being developed in laboratories from animal cells, which aim to ‘grow’ meat without killing the donor animal.

Italy’s goverment says synthetic meat products theaten its national food traditions. (Photo by Josep LAGO / AFP)
A 3D-printer at a food expo in Barcelona, Spain, creates plant-based proteins which mimic the texture of beef. Italy has moved to ban the production of such foods. (Photo by Josep LAGO / AFP)

If the proposal is passed by parliament, penalties for violations would include fines of up to 60,000 euros ($64,000).

Agriculture lobby Coldiretti praised the move, saying a ban was needed to safeguard domestic production “from the attacks of multinational companies”.

“Italy, which is a European leader in food quality and safety, has a duty to be at the forefront of food policies to defend citizens and businesses,” Coldiretti president Ettore Prandini said in a statement.

READ ALSO: Why claims Italian cuisine is a ‘modern invention’ have angered Italy

But critics said the move was part of the government’s focus on identity politics and would leave Italian businesses trailing behind rivals in other European countries.

“A new day, a new enemy, a new crime,” said Giordano Masini of the left-wing More Europe party.

“Instead of welcoming a potential new development opportunity, which could bring new businesses and more jobs, the government rushes to ban it, imagining health risks that no one has ever shown.”

“In the end, foods obtained via cell culture will arrive anyway, as it is the EFSA that evaluates the health risks of food products [in Europe] not the Italian government, and the European Union will allow them onto the single market. 

“So producers in other countries who, in the meantime, can do research and development will be the ones to benefit.”

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The ban was also crtiticised by organisations supporting the development of cell-based food products across Europe, as well as animal rights groups.

“The passing of such a law would shut down the economic potential of this nascent field in Italy, holding back scientific progress and climate mitigation efforts,” Alice Ravenscroft, head of policy at the Good Food Institute Europe, told Reuters.

In order to come into force, the bill will have to be adopted within two months by parliament, which may amend it during debates.

Currently no marketing applications for such foods have been made in the EU, and it is likely to be at least 2025 before such foods appear on shelves in Europe.

The ban on lab-grown meat was not the only rule proposed by Meloni’s administration aimed at preventing unconventional foods from being served on Italian tables.

The government was also reportedly preparing decrees to introduce information labels on products containing or derived from insects amid concerns about the use of cricket flour.

Italy’s government also said last week it planned to launch a bid to have “Italian cuisine” included on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage, though it was not immediately clear which dishes it would include.

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