The red line of obligation has been crossed: an arbitrary power that is now more frightening than the virus
Crossed the red line of the vaccination obligation to work. The real emergency is political
Three decrees in two weeks, each on the eve of a holiday, as if to psychologically weaken public opinion, to remind citizens that their rights, their fundamental freedoms, are in the total availability of the government, which for a day to the other he can dispose of it as he sees fit. And a prime minister who did not feel the need to illustrate even one publicly.
Instead of coming to the press conference to explain decisions of such great impact on the constitutional rights of millions of Italians, and so close together, His Competence preferred to send two unpresentable ministers to talk to journalists, literally in the middle of the street. Far from saving his face, this says a lot about the political and human depth of those who not only aspire, but are self-candidates for the Quirinale.
We had observed it in unsuspecting times, when it was still taking its first steps, but even the most optimistic today will have to admit it: by approximation, chaos and inconsistency of the measures and their communication, the Draghi government is completely comparable to its predecessor, the Conte-Casalino government. From the Green Pass to the compulsory vaccination, passing through the masks, there is not a single restrictive measure that responds to a scientific criterion and that has not been communicated in a fraudulent way. The threshold of the obligation set at 50 years, when the ISS vaccination efficacy estimates are divided into bands 40-59, 60-79, seems to be the result of a political compromise, with all due respect to decisions based on data and not on policy.
A dripping of restrictions and obligations which, however, always leaves open, like a sword of Damocles, the possibility of further tightening. The super Green Pass to work and the vaccination obligation not yet for everyone, but for the over 50s, so as to be able to lower the age threshold with subsequent measures and leave oneself a further alibi in case the infections continue to grow. Hitting one category, one age group at a time, to delude the others that they will be spared and prevent them from revolting all together …
Coming to the merits of the measures launched yesterday evening, pending an official text, we can say that after the lockdown and the Green Pass another red line has been crossed, our country is also a pioneer in the vaccination obligation, although for the moment limited to over 50. A sad record, given that none of these measures has ensured us a particular record in the containment of infections and deaths. In London, infections and hospitalizations are decreasing, in the whole of the United Kingdom there are about fifty daily deaths, the number of intensive care units employed less than ours for weeks. And there are no closures and discrimination, there has never been a "lockdown of the unvaccinated", there is no pass to work or a vaccination obligation. Not even vaccinating children.
We have always maintained that in theory a generalized vaccination obligation would not be contrary to the principles of our legal system, but there are limits set by the Constitution and by the current constitutional jurisprudence. The Draghi government trampled them.
In order to be made mandatory, one of the criteria that a vaccine must meet is the protection of others from contagion, but as it should now be clear to everyone, and even more evident with the Omicron variant, this is not the case with anti-Covid vaccines. , which do not immunize, that is, they do not prevent the transmission of the virus. If the motivation for the obligation cannot be to prevent contagion, but becomes "saving the lives" of those who do not want to get vaccinated, then we are faced with a therapeutic obligation and outside the limits set by the Council. To justify the obligation, therefore the compression of personal self-determination, is the protection of the health of others, the protection of the health of those subjected to the treatment is not enough.
Furthermore, with the vaccination obligation, the government would be expected to be able to provide the precise, definitive number of boosters and their time intervals. If he is unable to provide this minimal information, he admits that he does not have sufficient knowledge about the functioning of the vaccines he intends to subject us to. Is it possible to fulfill an obligation whose "how much" and "when" is undetermined, which could potentially be extended at will by the government?
Then there is a problem of sanctions: in the case of vaccines which are already mandatory today, an administrative sanction is envisaged for non-compliant persons. The surreptitious obligation via super Green Pass to work, on the other hand, provides for the suspension from work and salary, that is, the means of support for oneself and for one's family. A sanction that is in fact equivalent to a physical constraint, in open violation of Article 32 of the Constitution, the obligation "cannot in any case violate the limits imposed by respect for the human person".
For this reason, although in public declarations the objective of pushing to vaccinate is claimed, the obligation of Green Pass, basic and super, to work is not presented in the legal texts as an obligation or push to get vaccinated, but as a measure aimed at "preventing the spread of Sars-CoV-2 infection "and to ensure safety and health in the workplace. Too bad that this justification, as we have seen, no longer holds, if anything it has held in the past, since vaccines do not prevent contagion – and this is even more true with Omicron.
But the most disturbing aspect of this succession of restrictions and obligations is the feeling of being subjected to a power that in the name of an emergency that is increasingly difficult to present as such acts in an increasingly arbitrary and unquestionable way. While with Omicron we see the end of the pandemic, and many countries are asking themselves the problem of easing isolation and quarantines in order to avoid blockages due to a cold, in Italy we are proceeding in the opposite direction, strengthening the emergency scheme with tools clearly outdated in the context of the new variant.
As citizens, even when vaccinated, we find ourselves in the position of no longer being able to plan our lives, not being able to know what the government will decide on our freedoms overnight. Constantly finding oneself in the crosshairs of a total discretion of political power, living in the uncertainty of seeing one's rights recognized today, tomorrow denied, are conditions proper to subjects with respect to an absolute sovereign.
The problem is no longer the virus, or the vaccine. The time has come to ask with concern whether we will ever get back our freedoms, now treated as temporary concessions of the government, revocable at any time, when a new variant emerges or if a dose, today the second, tomorrow the third and so on, should it no longer be effective. And it is a problem that also concerns the vaccinated, because once introduced into the legal system, and gradually extended to every aspect of daily life, indefinitely, the institution of a health pass works as an on / off switch, with which one it can turn people's lives on or off at the slightest breath of wind. Do you today consider the anti-Covid vaccine acceptable, reasonable? In the not too distant future you may be faced with an obligation that you would not want to fulfill.
As Florida Governor Ron De Santis summed up, “vaccination passports discriminate against people and create a two-tier society based on a personal health decision. They failed on their terms and in the meantime they damaged society ”.
Faced with this illiberal drift, a leap of dignity is needed, if it has remained, on the part of all parties, whether or not they are part of the Draghi government. Because history will not forgive indolence, a few distinctions will not be enough, it will not be enough to dissociate or vote against while remaining in the government, nor a nominal opposition.
The case of the Lega is emblematic. It seems that the Northern League resistances have to step back on the super Green Pass to go to the hairdresser, access shopping centers, personal services, banking and postal services, for which, however, the Green Pass basic will be needed from tomorrow. Many are therefore led to wonder what the Draghi government could have achieved without the League's brake. Reversing the point of view, we ask ourselves instead if he could have gone so far without the League, with an opposition of 40% in the country. Devoid of the unanimism that seems to surround him today, the Draghi government probably could not have gone this far with the Brothers of Italy and the Lega in opposition – and some argue that it would not even have been born.
Today, the ruling left-wing parties know that Giorgia Meloni's party will take advantage of the failures and constitutional tears of the Draghi government, but against the League, while it is reasonable to assume that they would have been more cautious, if they had had to register with all restrictions, obligations and related damages alone. The participation of the League in the government, moreover without the votes to determine its fall, could have acted as a lever to the illiberal moral hazard of the left.
The post Obligation red line crossed: an arbitrary power that is now scarier than the virus appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL https://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/superata-la-linea-rossa-dellobbligo-un-potere-arbitrario-che-ormai-fa-piu-paura-del-virus/ on Thu, 06 Jan 2022 02:12:44 +0000.