Premier Giorgia Meloni and her six-year-old daughter have been targeted by online death threats from an unemployed man angered by the Italian government’s plans to axe an anti-poverty subsidy, police said Wednesday.
The 27-year-old Sicilian man living in the province of Siracusa is now under investigation for his threatening behaviour.
The Italian police detected the threats on the premier's official Twitter account.
The threats allegedly regarded the government's decision to abolish the 'citizenship wage' minimum-income benefit for people considered fit for work at the end of next year.
Meloni has continually criticised the ‘citizenship wage’, which was introduced in 2019, claiming that able-bodied people of legal working age should not be allowed to live off government subsidies indeterminately.
Under proposals included in the Meloni government’s 2023 budget, which is currently being debated in parliament, citizens' income payments will now cease after eight months, with the exception of households with children, seniors aged 60 or above, and disabled persons.
The suspect now faces charges of aggravated private violence.
The postal police managed to track the individual down, even though he used an account in the name of a pseudonym to make the threats.
The postal police and the DIGOS security police searched the man's home and his IT devices, and his Twitter account has now reportedly been closed.
