The new government of far-right PM Giorgia Meloni has said it will make staging unlicensed raves a crime, hours after stopping one in northern Italy.
The new crime of “invasion for dangerous gatherings” of more than 50 people would attract up to six years in jail and opens up the possibility of wiretapping rave organisers.
A thousand ravers were ordered to leave a warehouse rave in Modena on Monday.
“The party’s over!” declared far-right minister Matteo Salvini.
Residents had complained of 48 hours of non-stop techno music at the Halloween party that attracted young ravers via social media from nearby Italian cities as well as Belgium and France.
The ravers had planned to stay until Tuesday but left the disused warehouse in northern Modena without trouble and witnesses said they tidied up behind them.
Prime Minister Meloni argued the new law aimed to protect people from harm and was no different from elsewhere in Europe – but it would signal that the Italian state was no longer lax in respecting the rules.
The previous national unity government had already begun work on changing the law after a mass rave in 2021 in the central town of Viterbo ended with the deaths of two people. But the new right-wing administration’s draft degree goes further, including big fines and confiscation of sound systems.
Critics asked why the government had targeted young ravers but had ignored a fascist march at the weekend by 2,000 black-clad supporters of Italy’s wartime dictator, Benito Mussolini.
The weekend rally took place in Predappio, where Mussolini was born and buried. It featured fascist salutes and hymns, marked Mussolini’s march on Rome and the start of fascist rule 100 years ago. (BBC)
