If the EU doesn’t hammer Italy for rejecting homosexual hate crime invoice, it’ll show it’s one rule for the West & one rule for the remainder

The European Union finds itself in one other tight spot after Italy voted down an anti-homophobia invoice. Will it’s ready to sanction Rome in the identical approach it did Poland and Hungary for his or her stance on LGBT points?

The Italian Senate has rejected a invoice that may have amended the nation’s penal code to ban discrimination on the grounds of intercourse, sexual orientation, gender, gender identification and incapacity.

The invoice, which might have made anti-LGBT violence and misogyny a hate crime, was rejected by 154 to 131 votes. The brand new legislation, named the ‘Zan invoice’ after the homosexual centre-left Democratic Occasion legislator Alessandro Zan, was handed by the decrease home final yr. Nevertheless, it had been a rocky two-year affair, with the Vatican, amongst others, claiming that the invoice was an assault on freedom of speech.

Opposition to the Zan invoice was led by Matteo Salvini’s Lega, and the Brothers of Italy celebration, which is led by Giorgia Meloni, who additionally argued that the brand new legislation would have suppressed freedom of speech and promoted “gay propaganda” in colleges.

This now locations the ball firmly within the European Union’s courtroom, as Brussels has made LGBT rights a pillar of its ideology in recent times. Certainly, if the EU fails to behave to sanction Italy, then it can expose the way it treats Central and Japanese European nations otherwise to Western member states.

Take, for instance, the state of affairs in Hungary, the place a legislation banning the promotion of LGBT points in colleges was met with scorn by Brussels. When this invoice turned legislation again in June, the president of the European Fee, Ursula von der Leyen, mentioned that “this Hungarian invoice is a disgrace” because it “clearly discriminates in opposition to individuals primarily based on their sexual orientation. It goes in opposition to the basic values of the European Union: human dignity, equality, and respect for human rights.”

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She additionally warned that “I’ll use all of the powers of the fee to make sure that the rights of all EU residents are assured. Whoever they’re and wherever they stay inside the European Union.”

Along with the warnings doled out by the European Fee, the European Parliament additionally expressed its anger at Hungary and Prime Minister Viktor Orban. For instance, in July MEPs handed a decision calling for Covid restoration fund monies promised to Budapest to be withheld.

However it’s not simply Hungary that has felt the ire of Brussels in terms of LGBT points; Poland, too, has just lately come below fireplace. Final yr, 5 Polish areas – equating to round one-third of the nation – handed resolutions declaring themselves LGBT-free zones.

The European Fee was livid, and final month it issued an identical risk to that given to Hungary, stating that it was ready to withhold Covid restoration funds if the areas didn’t overturn the resolutions.

The threats appear to have labored within the Polish case, as three of the 5 councils just lately repealed their LGBT-free zone resolutions.  Nevertheless, the EU’s posturing doesn’t appear to be having the identical impact on Hungary, the place Orban has declared that he’s calling a referendum on his nation’s controversial LGBT legislation.

The query now’s, how will the EU react to what occurred within the Italian Senate? If all issues had been equal, then threats to withhold much-needed post-Covid money can be within the submit to Rome. I don’t agree with the EU interfering in a sovereign state’s affairs – nevertheless it makes the principles of the membership, and if you would like the money then you need to play its sport.   

Nevertheless, if Brussels doesn’t react in an identical strategy to the way it did to Hungary and Poland, it reinforces the idea that the principles will not be utilized evenly within the EU. Certainly, it appears to be one rule for Western European member states and one other for the Central and Japanese European nations, particularly people who have governments which the EU doesn’t approve of. 

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This concern was raised final week by Zbigniew Ziobro, Poland’s justice minister, who threatened to take Germany to courtroom for violating EU treaties. Ziobro argues that whereas Poland is being punished for its authorities’s position in deciding on judges, Germany, which does the identical, is free from sanction. All issues don’t appear equal.

How Brussels responds to what has occurred in Rome might be revealing. If the EU treats Italy otherwise than Hungary and Poland, then will probably be extra proof that Brussels more and more resembles George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’, the place it’s “4 legs good, two legs higher.”

Nevertheless, if Brussels responds with an iron fist and points monetary penalties, then count on Italy’s proper to rise additional within the polls and Euroscepticism to develop. In some ways, the EU faces a selection between precept and pragmatism, nevertheless it have to be conscious that each roads are strewn with potholes.  

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