After having voted it in the House, now Italia Viva wants to change the Zan bill

After having voted it in the House

Matteo Renzi's party has proposed a compromise with the requests for changes by the right, making the majority for the approval of the bill in the Senate fail

(photo: La presse) After the obstructions of the League and the he Vatican diplomatic intervention, Italia Viva, the party of Matteo Renzi, proposed to modify the so-called Zan bill, the bill presented by the deputy of the Democratic Party Alessandro Zan to counter homolesbobitransphobia, misogyny and ability to act. For months under discussion in the Senate, the text aims to extend the scope of the existing legislation on hate crimes to discriminatory attitudes towards the LGBT + community, women and people with disabilities. According to the statements of Renzi, interviewed by Repubblica, the changes would serve to speed up the approval of the bill, eliminating the most controversial passages and at the center of the criticisms of the Lega and the Vatican.

Concretely, Italia Viva has proposed to to amend articles 1 and 7 of the decree and to completely abolish article 4.

Article 1

The original wording of article 1 of the Zan law requires the addition of offenses of discrimination based "on sex, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity or disability" in article 604-bis and 604-ter of the criminal code, which punish incitement to violence and discrimination for "Racial, ethnic, religious or nationality". In the Italia Viva proposal, on the other hand, the formula would read only "based on homophobia or transphobia".

In this way, however, not only would the text lose its scope of protection against persons discriminated against for reasons related to their biological sex or their condition of disability, but it should also make the law imprecise, by not defining correctly all the details of the offenses sanctioned. For the Senator of the Democratic Party Monica Cirinnà, secretary of the Justice Commission in the Senate, with the exclusion of the protection of gender identity, this modification would be "in contrast with the principle of mandatory penal law".

Second Renzi, on the other hand, with this change could facilitate the approval of the bill in the Senate, eliminating the protests of the right and conservative Catholics, totally opposed to the idea of ​​inserting the concept of "gender identity" into a law, considered vague and dangerous. In reality, the bill explains how "gender identity" means "the perceived and manifest identification of oneself in relation to gender, even if it does not correspond to sex, regardless of having completed a transition path". In summary, gender identity identifies what a person feels and says they are beyond their biological sex with which they were born or born.

Article 4

The article 4 of the Zan bill is dedicated to safeguarding freedom of opinion and choice, to protect freedom of speech, and states "the free expression of beliefs or opinions as well as legitimate conduct attributable to the pluralism of ideas or the freedom of choices, provided that they are not suitable for determining the concrete danger of carrying out discriminatory or violent acts ". That is, freedom of expression must never cross over into incitement to hatred and violence. According to Italia viva this step can be suppressed, because the protection of freedom of expression is already provided for by the Constitution. Article 4 has been strongly challenged both by the right and in the Vatican note, because it could limit the freedom of expression of the Catholic community.

Article 7

Article 7 too is one of the most contested by the right and among those cited as in violation of the Concordat between State and Church, in the Vatican note. In this case, the bill proposes to establish for May 17 the national day against homophobia, lesbophobia, biphobia and transphobia (the same day in which the international one is already in force) and provides that schools and administrations organize initiatives to promote a culture of respect and inclusion and counter prejudice and violence. According to Lega leader Matteo Salvini, this article should be removed to avoid "the involvement of children", while for the Holy See it would limit the autonomy of the Catholic community by not exempting private Catholic schools from organizing activities for this day. Therefore, Italia Viva proposed to include in the article the formula "in compliance with full school autonomy", thus leaving educational institutions the freedom to participate or not in awareness-raising activities towards the message of the day.

The legislative process

The original text of the Zan bill was already approved in the Chamber on November 4, 2020, also with the votes of Italia Viva. If the changes proposed by Renzi's party were to be approved, the text that will arrive in the Senate will then have to go back to the House to be voted on a second time, as it is different from the original one. In this way, the risk is that new obstructions could open in the Chamber and that the law, after several months of uncertainty, could be sunk or remain stuck in a legislative loop for a long time to come. Italia Viva now has the fate of the law in its hands, without its senators and its senators, in fact, there may not be the numbers to approve it as it is.


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Topics

Italian Government rights Lega lgbt + Politics globalData.fldTopic = "Rights, Government, Italy , Lega, lgbt +, Politics "

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