Consensus on Italy’s rape bill fell apart when ‘consent’ was replaced with ‘dissent’ |
A law on consent with the word “consent” taken out, and replaced with its opposite: “dissent.” It sounds like a punchline, but it isn’t. This is the actual proposal for rewriting the Rape Bill put forward by Lega lawyer Giulia Bongiorno, rapporteur for the bill in the Senate, which had already been approved unanimously by the Chamber of Deputies at the first reading.
This is “inadmissible, unacceptable, something never seen before,” says indignant PD deputy Laura Boldrini, a signatory of the bill, which was supposed to be the first in Italy to introduce the concept of “consent” into the definition of the crime of sexual violence under Article 609-bis of the Criminal Code. As Boldrini recalls, it was meant to “apply the Istanbul Convention ratified in 2013 and bring Italy into alignment with other European countries.”
Instead, the famous handshake in November between Giorgia Meloni and Elly Schlein to pass this bill, sealing a political pact “against male violence,” is now ancient history. One might be forgiven for thinking the photo was AI-generated. Now the majority is stepping back and inventing a double category of crime, leaving the current crime........