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Salvini pelted with eggs on visit to southern Italian virus hotspot

An angry crowd greeted Italy's far-right leader Matteo Salvini when he visited a coronavirus-hit town in the Naples region on Monday, with some heckling and pelting him with eggs and water.

Published: 30 June 2020 11:24 CEST
Salvini pelted with eggs on visit to southern Italian virus hotspot
Police hold back protestors as Matteo Salvini speaks outside quarantined apartment blocks in Mondragone. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP
The confrontation took place when Salvini visited a neighbourhood of Mondragone, the scene of tensions last week between some residents and foreign workers following an outbreak of the coronavirus in the area.
 
 
When Salvini arrived an hour later than scheduled there was a hostile crowd waiting for him, many of them shouting insults.
 
Salvini, wearing a face mask in the colours of the Italian flag, quickly lowered it to begin his speech, but could scarcely be heard over the heckling.
 
“Salvini is worse than the Covid,” some shouted, with others calling him a “jackal” or a “clown” and telling him to leave.
 
Salvini, as he tried to continue his speech from behind a police line, was forced to dodge eggs and water thrown from the crowd, which was held back by riot police.
 
 
Matteo Salvini in Mondragone on Monday. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP
 
Some 700 residents of five apartment blocks on a council estate, mostly home to Bulgarian workers, were placed under quarantine after a cluster of cases was detected there last week.
 
After protests by residents, many of whom said the lockdown left them without money for food, violence broke out between the protestors and Italians liviing nearby who threw stones at the migrants, who they blamed for the outbreak.
 
Television footage also showed several vehicles belonging to Bulgarians damaged, their windscreens smashed and the Bulgarian-registered plates taken as trophies.

 
Last Friday, riot police and soldiers were sent to the town to restore order.
 
Italy's far-right aimed to capitalise on the drama. As Matteo Salvini organised a visit, his League party issued a press statement calling the town a “social bomb”. Giorgia Meloni, head of Brothers of Italy, lashing out at the government for failing to “control the migrants”.
 
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Salvini served as interior minister and deputy prime minister in the last coalition government, pursuing hardline policies that were hostile to immigrants.
 
His party – formally known as the Northern League, and previously also hostile to southern Italians, as well as non-Italians – has in recent years begun to attract voters in the south after its rebrand.
 
However, his visits to Naples and other parts of southern Italy regularly spark protests.
 
With the collapse of that administration last year after his failed bid to take power, and the coronavirus crisis this year, his profile – and his standing in the opinion polls – has fallen.
In brief comments to television crews at the scene, he denounced what he claimed were agitators who had come in from outside.
 
“We have to guarantee the rights of Italians, and expel foreigners without papers,” he told AFPTV. “We need to invest more in the Naples region, in resources and in the forces of order,” he added.
 
He left the scene after half an hour, but promised to return.

Member comments

  1. More trouble in Italy caused by migrants, i have just watched a video of another migrant scumbag who had killed and cooked a cat, this is just unbelievable what is going on in Italy?

  2. “Italians living nearby who threw stones at the migrants, who they blamed for the outbreak.

    “Television footage also showed several vehicles belonging to Bulgarians damaged, their windscreens smashed and the Bulgarian-registered plates taken as trophies.”

    but let’s blame migrants for some reason? get out of here.

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ECONOMY

Who will pay less income tax under Italy’s planned reforms?

Italy is planning an overhaul of the tax system meaning new income tax rates for many - but who will benefit the most, and least?

Published: 17 March 2023 13:41 CET
Who will pay less income tax under Italy's planned reforms?

Italy’s government on Thursday submitted the text of a long-awaited tax reform bill which ministers say will be the first step in a sweeping overhaul of the system planned by 2027

As previously reported by The Local, the bill will introduce a raft of major tax changes aimed at gradually reducing Italy’s notoriously high tax burden and making investment in Italy more appealing. 

The plan includes a substantial change to Italy’s main income tax, Irpef (Imposta sui Redditi delle Persone Fisiche), with the number of  tax brackets dropping from four to three.

READ ALSO: Flat tax for all? Italy announces plan to overhaul tax system

This change is expected to mean a new tax rate for many workers in Italy starting from next year. But who’s going to benefit the most from the changes? 

Here’s what we know at this point. 

Irpef, which applies to all employees, many self-employed workers (regular partita Iva holders, but not those on the flat tax rate) and pensioners, currently counts four brackets, which are arranged as below:

  Income (annual) Irpef rate
First bracket Up to 15,000 euros 23 percent
Second bracket Between 15,000 and 28,000 euros 25 percent
Third bracket Between 28,000 and 15,000 euros 35 percent
Fourth bracket Over 50,000 euros 43 percent
     

The coming tax reform will reduce the number of tax brackets down to three, with the second and third bands being merged into a single one.

The tax rate for the lowest earners is expected to remain unchanged at 23 percent (for those earning 15,000 euros a year or less).

The tax rate should also stay the same for the highest earners taking home 50,000 euros a year or more, at 43 percent.

But middle earners who are currently in the second or third bracket may end up paying more or less tax – and it’s still unclear exactly what will happen. 

READ ALSO: The tax changes in Italy to know about in 2023

While Thursday’s announcement confirmed the number of tax bands will drop to three, the newly published bill didn’t specify what tax rate the new band would carry nor confirm how rates in other bands would be readjusted. 

However, Meloni’s cabinet is reportedly considering two options. 

First scenario

Under the first, and currently more likely, option, the new middle bracket will mean all taxpayers earning between 28,000 and 50,000 euros a year will pay a 33-percent rate.

Rates for the first and last brackets would remain the same.

This would mean all those who are currently in the second (income between 15,000 and 28,000) and third bands (28,000 to 50,000) would see their tax rate drop by two percent next year and subsequently benefit from sizable cuts to their Irpef payments. 

  Income (annual) Irpef rate
First bracket Up to 28,000 euros 23 percent
Second bracket Between 28,000 and 50,000 euros 33 percent
Third bracket Over 50,000 euros 43 percent
     

Second scenario

Meloni’s government is also considering a second scenario, with a 27-percent rate for a larger middle band – an option that would be much more costly to the state, and so seems less likely.

This would mean people currently in the second bracket (15,000 to 28,000) will see their tax rate increase by two percent, while those in the third bracket (28,000 to 50,000) would benefit from a whopping eight-percent cut. 

Rates for the first and last brackets would again remain the same.

  Income (annual) Irpef rate
First bracket Up to 15,000 euros 23 percent
Second bracket Between 15,000 and 50,000 euros 27 percent
Third bracket Over 50,000 euros 43 percent
     

Which path will the government go down?

While it was hoped that the bill’s text would clarify what rate the new band would carry, there are currently no details as to which option the government intends to go with.

That said, the first option seems to be the more likely one at this point in time, not least because implementing it would reportedly cost state coffers around 6 billion euros, whereas the second option would present the treasury with a 10 billion-euro bill.

Further information over which route the government will ultimately go down should emerge in the coming weeks as the bill goes through parliament. 

And even the possibility that Meloni’s executive might end up adopting an Irpef system other than the two described above cannot be ruled out at this time.

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