Relatives of those affected welcome the creation of the commission, but former ministers say it will be used as a political attack.
Italy will conduct an investigation into its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a move hailed as “a wonderful victory” by relatives of those killed by the virus but criticized by those in place at the time.
Italy is the first Western country to report an outbreak and has the second-highest number of Covid-related deaths to date in Europe, with more than 196,000. Only the UK has a higher death toll.
The creation of a commission to study “the movements of the government and the measures followed by the government to save and respond to the epidemiological emergency of Covid-19” was approved by the lower house of parliament after being followed by the Senate.
An investigation into Covid-19 among the election campaign promises of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right government came into force in October 2022.
The families of those affected had demonstrated against a proposal for an investigation by the former government, a broad coalition led by Mario Draghi, after the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and the League, which governs the worst-hit region of Lombardy. , attempted to narrow its scope by focusing solely on the outbreak in China and introducing a deadline of January 31, 2020, without examining the Italian government’s struggle to imply an immediate rise in infections and deaths in the weeks that followed.
Consuelo Locati, a lawyer representing many families who have filed lawsuits against the former leaders, said: “The families were the first to ask for a commission and that’s why this is a big victory for us. The commission is vital because its mission, at least on paper, is to analyze what happened and the mistakes that were made so as not to repeat the bloodbath that we all suffered. “
The commission will investigate the movements of other people, including Giuseppe Conte, former prime minister, Roberto Speranza, former health minister, and Attilio Fontana, president of Lombardy.
Conte, who now heads the Five Star Movement, which at the time governed with the PD, accused Meloni’s government of “cowardice” and of creating “a tool” to politically attack her predecessors. “This could just become a harmful precedent,” he said, adding that he had “nothing to hide. “
Speranza said the commission’s purpose is not to make the fitness formula more resilient but to vilify the previous government.
In June last year, prosecutors in Bergamo, the province of Lombardy hit hard by Covid-19 at the start of the pandemic, dropped an investigation into Conte and Speranza’s handling of the emergency after finding no evidence linking the deaths to their failure to take action. involve the escalation of the virus.
The first case of coronavirus in Italy occurred in Codogno, in southern Lombardy, on February 21, 2020. Two days later, an outbreak broke out at the Alzano Lombardo hospital in the city of Bergamo. However, unlike Codogno, where quarantine measures were implemented immediately, in addition to nine other cities in Lombardy and one each in Veneto, Bergamo and the entire Lombardy region were locked down two weeks later.
A case brought by the relatives of the deceased before the Civil Court of Rome is ongoing. The court is considering the same evidence as prosecutors in Bergamo, adding the alleged lack of an updated national plan against the pandemic. “The difference with the Rome case is that there will definitely be a ruling, which will be in our favor or not,” said Locati, whose father was among those who died at the start of the pandemic.