Rome “Let me work,” yells a man in a yellow vest in front of the gate to the port area of Trieste. He stands in front of a car that wants to drive in. “Why do you let the others in and not me?” He calls into the television cameras.
The most important cargo handling point in northeast Italy has 950 employees. Around 40 percent of the workforce are not vaccinated or do not want to be tested. Their plan: block the port and thereby paralyze a large part of the goods traffic in the country. “The only option for us is to lift the green passport,” said a spokesman for the port workers.
In Italy this Friday is “G-Day”, “G” as in “3G”. Because from now on you will need a 3G certificate for your entire working life. Every employee and civil servant, every cleaner and every babysitter must provide proof of having been vaccinated, recovered from Corona or tested negative within 48 hours by means of a “Green Pass”.
Public servants must provide proof even if they only work in the home office. Anyone who comes to work without the green certificate is suspended and no longer receives a salary. 23 million employees are affected by the new regulation, which will initially apply until the end of the year.
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The protest in Trieste, where around 6,000 people gathered by noon, is not the only one. There were also demonstrations in other ports, such as Naples and Genoa. Conftrasporto, the Italian logistics association, warned of delivery problems. Many truck drivers come from abroad and do not have a green passport – because they are either not vaccinated or the vaccination from their home country, for example with the Russian vaccine Sputnik-V, is not recognized in Italy.
There could now even be a “mass exodus” of drivers to their home countries. 3.5 million people in the country have not yet been vaccinated. For example, 20 percent of the police are said to be unvaccinated. In agriculture, logistics and transport it is even around 30 percent.
Buses in Trentino are canceled, a university is stormed
But there were also protests away from the ports. In Milan, around 100 students without a 3G certificate stormed the courtyard of the state university in the morning and chanted “No Green Pass”. In Trentino, the region bordering South Tyrol, 220 bus trips had to be canceled for today because too few drivers showed up for duty. A big demo in Rome has been announced for the afternoon, at which a cocktail of right-wing extremists, anti-vaccination opponents and conspiracy theorists could mix together again.
Violent clashes at Corona demo in Rome
The Trieste dock worker with the yellow vest also belongs to “Forza Nuova”, a right-wing extremist party that is at the center of the riots last weekend. Starting on the “Piazza del Popolo”, the demonstrators moved into the center of the old town on Saturday evening, chanting “Libertà” (“Freedom”) over and over again.
A right-wing mob attacked the headquarters of the Italian trade union federation CGIL, windows were smashed and offices were vandalized. They even wanted to attack the Palazzo Chigi, the official residence of the prime minister. This did not succeed, however, the police used tear gas, twelve right-wing extremists were arrested and one policeman was injured.
Critics see in the regulations a compulsory vaccination through the back door. Because, unlike in Germany, for example, tests have always cost money here. At first it was 22 euros, now it’s 15 euros. If you don’t want to be vaccinated, you have to pay for the test out of your own pocket every two days. This is particularly a burden for low-wage earners. The government rejected proposals from the unions to make the tests free for workers. This would remove the incentive to vaccinate.
Draghi’s radical measures are having an effect
The measures are drastic, but have already shown the desired effect: Since the government declared the “Green Pass” obligation in September, the willingness to vaccinate has increased significantly again – that was also the declared goal.
More than 85 percent of the population aged twelve and over have been vaccinated at least once, and almost 81 percent have completed the entire vaccination cycle. The strong development is also reflected in the corona numbers: Most recently, the seven-day incidence fell to 29, and there are currently fewer than 80,000 infected people in the country.
With its corona regulations, Italy has always been more drastic than the other countries in Europe. In April, for example, Draghi introduced mandatory vaccination for all health workers in hospitals and old people’s homes. Today only a fraction of the nurses and doctors are unvaccinated.
Since September, punctually after the summer holidays, the Green Pass has been valid for all school and university staff, right through to employees in the cafeteria or caretakers. At the same time, the 3G rule was also introduced in all long-distance trains, on domestic Italian flights and ferry connections. The certificate is checked on the trains before entering the platform or by the conductor during the ticket inspection.
More: No more salary without 3G proof: Italy adopts the strictest corona rules in Europe.