Icon: enlarge
Casalpusterlengo in the northern Italian region of Lombardy: elderly cyclist talking to police officers
Photo: Luca Bruno / AP / DPA
The chaos and desperation in Italy in view of the system failure in the corona crisis in March can still be seen by many
.
The images of the coffins that were taken away by the army in Bergamo, the faces of the exhausted doctors, have burned themselves into the collective memory.
Countries like Germany have learned from Italy's early pandemic experience and successfully taken countermeasures.
Nevertheless, even in the middle of the second Covid-19 wave, patent recipes are rare - on both sides of the Alps.
The government in Rome has difficulties with uniform measures.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is losing massively in popularity with the citizens in view of the rapidly increasing number of infections, as a survey by the research institute Ipsos showed on Saturday.
Italy, with its 60 million inhabitants, reported 31,758 new infections in 24 hours on Saturday, plus 297 new fatalities.
On Sunday there were 29,907 new cases and 208 deaths.
Health Minister Roberto Speranza called the increasing number of infections appalling and called for quick action: "We have 48 hours to try to get the tightening on the way," he told the Corriere della Sera.
"There are too many people on the way."
You have to convince the Italians to stay at home as much as possible.
The intensive care units are not yet about to collapse, but the pressure is increasing.
All signs point to partial shutdown in Italy as well.
Without a healthy population, the economy will not recover from the corona crisis, Prime Minister Conte is now also convinced.
New restrictions by decree
On Monday, Conte wants to make declarations in both chambers of parliament in Rome and then issue new restrictions by decree, media report.
As early as Sunday, the government conferred with representatives from the 20 regions, mayors and experts.
A curfew from 6 p.m. was under discussion, and the closure of shopping centers and betting shops in bars and tobacco shops at the weekend were also discussed.
Metropolises with high corona numbers such as Naples or Genoa could become "red zones", i.e. restricted areas.
Travel between the regions should also be restricted.
Overall, the regions rely on local responsibility in order to react immediately to the current infection situation.
However, the regions of Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy ruled by center-right parties spoke out against local lockdowns.
"If we shut down Milan, we'll shut down the whole of Lombardy," said regional governor Attilio Fontana of the right-wing party "Lega".
A lockdown would only make sense at the national level.
The proposal of the three regions in the north: one should restrict the freedom of movement of those over 70 years of age.
A tweet from the Ligurian regional president Giovanni Toti, founder of the center-right party "Cambiamo!", Triggered outrage in this context: Of 25 Covid-19 deaths in Liguria, 22 were very old, thus already retired and "not indispensable for the country's productive effort, "wrote Toti.
The elderly, according to the subtext, can stay at home because they are no longer generating any economic output and the number of corona deaths is lower due to such a lockdown.
Toti later apologized for his statement, which had been misunderstood.
Lega boss Matteo Salvini also senses a "catastrophe" in a renewed lockdown: "Instead of punishing, imprisoning and persecuting 60 million Italians, one should concentrate on the people who have the greatest risk of falling ill, on those who are older are over 70, "he said in an Instagram post.
With the increasing number of infections in the circle of friends, the fear of Covid-19 is apparently also increasing among Italians.
According to a new survey quoted by the newspaper "Il Fatto Quotidiano", six out of ten Italians are in favor of a curfew for people over 65 who have previous illnesses.
Stones and fireworks against the police
The center-left government issued new rules and emergency decrees almost every week in October - with no apparent success.
Mask requirements have been in place in the country for more than three weeks.
Theaters and cinemas were closed by decree, bars and restaurants are only allowed to serve guests until 6 p.m.
Partial online lessons have been arranged for teaching at grammar schools.
As in Germany, face-to-face teaching in schools is highly controversial.
At the first Italy-wide lockdown in the spring, many parents were angry because the schools were then closed until the end of the summer holidays.
In the course of the week, protests by associations and citizens against the tightening increased.
There were sometimes riots and clashes with the police, for example on Friday in Florence and on Saturday in Rome, where demonstrators threw bottles, stones and fireworks, knocked over garbage cans and destroyed surveillance cameras.
Politicians blamed neo-fascists, juvenile offenders and left-wing extremists for attacks.
There were around 20 arrests.
Icon: The mirror
ala / dpa
