FI’s health policy. It accepts the bonus for the over-75s but promises to fight the anti-vaxxers. The CPR case and the focus on Schillaci

Healthcare has always been a key issue for Forza Italia. So much so that Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani had personally lobbied to ensure new measures were included in the Budget Bill. In the end, the €300 voucher for the over-75s to book services not covered by the National Health Service was included in the Budget Bill. What matters, in the secretary’s view, is that the party has managed to set itself apart from the rest of the majority. However, the bonus is not the only front on which Forza Italia is fighting on the healthcare front. This was evident with the approval, in the Chamber of Deputies, of a provision that also provides for the reinstatement of anti-vaccine doctors. The party was split on the vote, and some senators (as Licia Ronzulli’s comments below illustrate) have vowed to fight to overhaul the text. This is partly due to the timing chosen by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who, at the ‘Days of Research’ celebration, spoke in general terms of ‘alarming opposition to vaccines, fuelled by fake news’.

Still on the subject of medical and health issues, in recent days Fratelli d’Italia tabled an amendment to the Security Bill in which, following the investigation into certain doctors in Ravenna who are under investigation for criminal association for failing to sign certificates of fitness for the CPRs, it is requested that medical examinations be allowed to be repeated at another local health authority (ASL). On this issue, Forza Italia has adopted a more balanced stance and, in recent weeks, has confined itself to calling for an investigation into what happened. Then there is the matter of the less-than-idyllic (to put it mildly) relations with Health Minister Orazio Schillaci, with whom not only the Lega but also Forza Italia have clashed when the minister attempted to push through his reform of general practitioners. Partly due to the cooling of relations between the minister and FdI, Tajani and his colleagues would not be averse to securing a ministry considered to be of prime importance. This, too, may explain the insistence on an issue which, moreover, risks becoming a major campaign theme.