Il pacchetto sicurezza secondo il "Financial Times".
Pledging to erase “citizens’ fears” and guarantee their security, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s newly elected prime minister, on Wednesday announced tough new measures to combat crime and illegal immigration.
Holding his first cabinet meeting in the rubbish-infested city of Naples, as he had promised in his election campaign, Mr Berlusconi also declared that troops would guard newly identified sites for the dumping of thousands of tonnes of rubbish.
Separately, Giulio Tremonti, the finance minister, announced an agreement with the Italian banking association that would allow mortgage borrowers hit by the credit squeeze to fix their loans at the lower variable rates of 2006 and settle the difference at the end of the term.
Mr Tremonti also confirmed an election pledge to abolish a local property tax on first homes and remove taxes on overtime work in the private sector. This would cost the public budget €4bn ($6.2bn, $3.2bn) which would be paid for by cuts in public spending.
The “mother of reforms”, Mr Tremonti said, would be fiscal federalism.
Security and stagnating incomes were key themes in the centre-right’s decisive election victory last month when Mr Berlusconi’s People of Freedom coalition drew accusations of stoking racism and a revival of fascist ideology and legislation.
“We are tackling the right of citizens not to be afraid,” Mr Berlsuconi told a news conference, flanked by ministers including Roberto Maroni, interior minister from the right-wing Northern League. “We will make the state become a state again, because it has to uphold the law,” the media mogul added.
But his hardline approach, reflecting the more right-wing make-up of his third government, could put Mr Berlusconi on a collision course with the European Commission, Italy’s marginalised left wing and even ordinary residents of Naples opposed to huge new rubbish tips on their doorsteps.
Italian officials insist the plans do not violate EU law.
A decree with immediate effect will provide for “easier” expulsion of illegal immigrants and the confiscation of property they might have rented from Italians.
Illegal immigration is proposed to become an offence carrying a jail sentence of up to four years. Illegals might be detained in centres for up to 18 months pending their eventual expulsion .
Local officials are to be given more powers to verify the residences and incomes of foreigners seeking residency, including EU citizens, and more authority to expel them.
A crackdown on marriages of convenience and begging in the street with children were also announced.
New measures aimed at tackling the Mafia would lead to greater confiscation of their assets and eliminate plea-bargaining in court.
The government will also establish a DNA bank for those guilty of serious crimes and a new national databank. Details were not disclosed.
Riot police kept a dozen different demonstrations well away from the regional government palaces where the cabinet was meeting. Protesters included factory workers demonstrating over racism and unemployment, jobless hospital workers, environmentalists and, even, illegal immigrants.
Pledging to erase “citizens’ fears” and guarantee their security, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s newly elected prime minister, on Wednesday announced tough new measures to combat crime and illegal immigration.
Holding his first cabinet meeting in the rubbish-infested city of Naples, as he had promised in his election campaign, Mr Berlusconi also declared that troops would guard newly identified sites for the dumping of thousands of tonnes of rubbish.
Separately, Giulio Tremonti, the finance minister, announced an agreement with the Italian banking association that would allow mortgage borrowers hit by the credit squeeze to fix their loans at the lower variable rates of 2006 and settle the difference at the end of the term.
Mr Tremonti also confirmed an election pledge to abolish a local property tax on first homes and remove taxes on overtime work in the private sector. This would cost the public budget €4bn ($6.2bn, $3.2bn) which would be paid for by cuts in public spending.
The “mother of reforms”, Mr Tremonti said, would be fiscal federalism.
Security and stagnating incomes were key themes in the centre-right’s decisive election victory last month when Mr Berlusconi’s People of Freedom coalition drew accusations of stoking racism and a revival of fascist ideology and legislation.
“We are tackling the right of citizens not to be afraid,” Mr Berlsuconi told a news conference, flanked by ministers including Roberto Maroni, interior minister from the right-wing Northern League. “We will make the state become a state again, because it has to uphold the law,” the media mogul added.
But his hardline approach, reflecting the more right-wing make-up of his third government, could put Mr Berlusconi on a collision course with the European Commission, Italy’s marginalised left wing and even ordinary residents of Naples opposed to huge new rubbish tips on their doorsteps.
Italian officials insist the plans do not violate EU law.
A decree with immediate effect will provide for “easier” expulsion of illegal immigrants and the confiscation of property they might have rented from Italians.
Illegal immigration is proposed to become an offence carrying a jail sentence of up to four years. Illegals might be detained in centres for up to 18 months pending their eventual expulsion .
Local officials are to be given more powers to verify the residences and incomes of foreigners seeking residency, including EU citizens, and more authority to expel them.
A crackdown on marriages of convenience and begging in the street with children were also announced.
New measures aimed at tackling the Mafia would lead to greater confiscation of their assets and eliminate plea-bargaining in court.
The government will also establish a DNA bank for those guilty of serious crimes and a new national databank. Details were not disclosed.
Riot police kept a dozen different demonstrations well away from the regional government palaces where the cabinet was meeting. Protesters included factory workers demonstrating over racism and unemployment, jobless hospital workers, environmentalists and, even, illegal immigrants.
Guy Dinmore
(C) Financial Times
(C) Financial Times
