Italy: The new technocratic sanitarian regime

Italy is currently facing its darkest historical period, after the fascist era of the early 1900, with the current "national unity government” that includes different political parties such as Partito Democratico, 5-Star Movement, Matteo Salvini's Lega, Italia dei Valori, LeU, and even Berlusconi's Forza Italia, all huddled up for a piece of "power”. The government, which is led by the never-elected Mario Draghi (already known for being the man of the international financial lobbies closely connected to Brussels) has become a container for all these different parties that were previously on opposite side, with antipodean political positions. Who would have ever imagined for instance that the center/left-wing Partito Democratico or the extreme left LeU would have sat side to side with Berlusconi's party? However, power generates miracles. In the last three months, Draghi's government has been issuing some of the most repressive and draconian decrees and laws against those citizens who are not willing to get vaccinated (Italy is currently using three different vaccines: mainly Pfizer, but additionally Moderna and Johnson), basically preventing from working, through the use of the infamous "green-pass”, all those who refuse to take the shot, preventing people from travelling on long-distance transportation, sitting inside bars and restaurants, going to the gym, university, and even prohibiting parents from bringing and picking up small children inside school structures. These measures were issued by Draghi only a few months after defining Turkish president Erdogan as a "dictator”, which says it all. It is interesting to notice how the official position held by the Italian government is that "the vaccine is not mandatory”, and there would be an alternative, which is to take a quick Covid test, but its validity only lasts for 48 hours and its cost ranges from 15 to 30 euros.