Italy's ruling populist coalition has clashed over a new bill targeting sexual crimes, including rape and revenge porn. The right-wing League party proposed voluntary chemical castration for some sex offenders as a condition for parole, but their coalition partners, the Five Star Movement, rejected the measure.
The bill, known as 'Code Red' (Codice rosso), is set to return to the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday. The session was suspended on Thursday after opposition MPs occupied government seats in protest during a heated debate. Revenge porn is to be criminalised, but MPs disagree on the details.
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini of the League tweeted that chemical castration was the right punishment for those who gang-raped an American tourist in Catania, Sicily. Three young men have been arrested on suspicion of raping the 19-year-old. 'For the rapist worms in #Catania who raped a tourist there's no discount: certain punishment and chemical castration!' he wrote.
Five Star MP Veronica Giannone criticised the proposal, calling it 'political propaganda'. 'It's a joke to say we'll castrate you, but only if you agree. Chemical castration isn't the method, but prison and certainty of punishment,' she said.
The revenge porn issue gained prominence after the 2017 suicide of Tiziana Cantone, 31, who took her own life after sex videos of her went viral. Five Star MP Giulia Sarti, herself a victim of revenge porn, opposed an amendment to criminalise it, arguing that the topic required wider debate involving experts and victims.
Several countries, including the UK and Germany, offer voluntary chemical castration under medical supervision, while Poland, Russia, and Moldova have made it compulsory for certain offenders. The treatment remains controversial among medical experts and human rights groups.
