The package will provide financial assistance to businesses and workers affected by the new restrictions, as restaurants, gyms, cinemas and other businesses have been partly or completely shut down since Monday.
“We have just passed the decree, which is worth a total of over five billion, that will be used to provide immediate resources for the benefit of the sectors penalised by the latest emergency restrictions,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said at a press conference at Palazzo Chigi in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
He said the financial package was put together “in a crazy race against time” and was approved at around 1:00 am on Tuesday.
Concerned business owners and employees have gathered in recent days to protest against the closures of certain services and the nightly curfews imposed in some regions, with demonstrations turning violent at the hands of hooligans in several cities.
The amounts paid to businesses hit by the decree will be “significant”, said Italy’s Finance Minister Roberto Gualtieri, explaining that restaurants would get compensation of between €5000 and €25,000 based on their usual turnover.
Gualtieri added that the funds would be delivered in record time, “by November 15”.
Some €1 billion is set aside for the culture and tourism sectors, with payments of €1000 for self-employed entertainment workers and special tax allowances to be made for the tourism sector, reported Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.
Conte said the payments would be made first to those who had already applied to previous compensation schemes during the nationwide lockdown in spring, and “immediately afterwards also to others”.
“We are making an incredible effort not to introduce new taxes,” Conte said.
“Already this is a great result.
“We want social peace.”
The prime minister acknowledged criticism of the new measures and the consequences they will have for businesses.
“Our choices can be legitimately criticised, we are in a democracy,” he said.
“But I want to say that we have not made indiscriminate choices.
“To prevent the curve from getting out of control, it is essential to reduce the main opportunities for socialising.
“If we respect these measures, we have a good chance of facing December with some serenity, without a stressed health system.”
The Italian public appeared to be divided on Tuesday over whether the new measures were adequate, too strict, or not strict enough, according to the findings of a poll by SWG and TV news channel LA7.
Some 28 per cent think the measures are adequate considering the current situation.
However 36 per cent were in favour of even tougher rules, saying the latest restrictions are insufficient to contain the spread.
One in four Italians thought the rules were too strict.
The 6:00 pm closure of bars and restaurants was found to be especially unpopular: almost half 48 per cent said this rule was excessive, while 35 per cent consider it adequate, and 17 per cent insufficient.
