Italy's top story on Tuesday:
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has written a letter of complaint to European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen in the wake of a Brussels report criticising the state of press freedom in Italy, saying it contains "fake news", national media reported on Monday.
The EU's Rule of Law Report 2024, published last Wednesday, highlights the challenges faced by Italian journalists in terms of editorial independence, legal threats, safety and source protection - concerns dismissed by Meloni in her letter as "clumsy and specious attacks".
The Meloni government has come under fire in recent months for a string of defamation lawsuits brought by senior members of her administration against prominent journalists, and what critics say is excessive control over state broadcaster Rai.
READ ALSO: How much control does Giorgia Meloni's government have over Italian media?
"For the prime minister, all the criticisms addressed towards the executive that she does not like are fake news," said Piero De Luca, a European Affairs MP for the opposition Democratic Party.
"Instead of dialoguing and collaborating with European institutions and dealing with Italy's problems, Meloni prefers to continue to engage in a painful and pointless battle tilting at windmills".
Anger at Naples balcony collapse victims' funeral
There was anger in Naples on Monday at the funeral of three victims of a balcony collapse in one of the city's crumbling social housing blocks, as reports emerged that the building's evacuation had been ordered almost a decade earlier.
Two people were immediately killed when the terrace in the Vela Celeste building in Naples' Scampia district suddenly gave way on July 22nd, while a third died two days later. Twelve people, including seven children, remain hospitalised.
Local newspaper Il Corriere del Mezzogiorno later reported that the city's then-mayor Luigi de Magistris had ordered the evacuation of 600 of the building's residents in 2015, but the order was never carried out.
A funeral attendee and one of the building's residents told Corriere della Sera newspaper that they blamed the city's institutions for failing to take action.
"Did they come today? I would have preferred not," they said. "They should have been there earlier, to ensure that this tragedy didn't happen."
Italian police seize €41 million from Russian businessman
Italy's financial police have seized €41 million in assets from a Russian businessman in Florence, Corriere della Sera reported on Monday.
The seizure was made at the request of anti-corruption authorities in Kyiv, Ukraine.
The man is under investigation for corruption of public officials, fraud totalling €60 million against a Ukrainian public company that markets agricultural products, and money laundering, according to news reports.
The investigation established that the suspect owns a sprawling luxury property in the Tuscan capital through a Florence-based trust company, Corriere della Sera reported.
22,000 sleeping rough in Rome: Charity
Rome has an estimated 22,000 homeless residents, making the lack of available housing the Italian capital's most serious problem, the director of Catholic charity Caritas told Ansa on Monday.
"Housing is the first and most dramatic problem we have in Rome, it has lasted for decades but it gets worse every year," said Director Giustino Trincia.
Around 7,000 evictions were carried out in 2022, according to Caritas's data.
"We have between 120,000 and 150,000 empty apartments in Rome...we need a great alliance of all political forces that are able to tackle a situation of emergency while we see a city afflicted by the speculation of short-term rentals," he said.
Comments