The Italian government is adopting an initiative to recruit volunteers from among unemployment recipients and welfare beneficiaries. The job of the recruits will be to help the government enforce its social distancing policies — that is, they will be expected to snitch on people who get too close to each other.
So it’s sort of like the CCC, corona-style.
Below are two videos on the topic. Many thanks to FouseSquawk for the translations, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling.
The first video may be a news report; its provenance is unclear. However, by the way it’s put together, it might just as well be an official promotion produced by the Italian government:
The second video shows the response of opposition leader Matteo Salvini, the head of the Lega party:
Video transcript #1:
| 00:00 | 60,000 civic assistants are coming, who will have the task of helping and surveilling | |
| 00:05 | during Phase 2. In the coming weeks the announcement will be sent out, aimed at the unemployed, | |
| 00:10 | those who have no work constraints, recipients of citizenship income | |
| 00:14 | or those who benefit from social safety nets. | |
| 00:17 | This was announced by the Minister of Regional Affairs, Francesco Boccia, and | |
| 00:21 | the president of ANCI [National Association of Italian Municipalities], Antonio Decaro, | |
| 00:24 | explaining that the assistants will be chosen on a voluntary basis. The civic assistants will | |
| 00:29 | be coordinated by the Department of Civil Protection, which indicates | |
| 00:33 | the availability in the regions of entire national territory, | |
| 00:36 | and employed by the mayors to collaborate on social activity | |
| 00:40 | in respect to social distancing, and to give support to the weakest | |
| 00:44 | segment of the population. The municipalities, through ANCI, will be able to make use of | |
| 00:48 | the contribution of the civic assistants to | |
| 00:52 | enforce all the measures put in place to counteract and contain the spread | |
| 00:56 | of the virus, starting with social distancing. After the thousands of | |
| 01:00 | of requests for doctors, nurses, and social-health workers received by Civil Protection | |
| 01:05 | at the moment of the greatest emergency in Italian hospitals, | |
| 01:08 | now is the moment to recruit all those citizens who want to help | |
| 01:12 | the country, demonstrating a great civic sense. |
Video transcript #2:
| 00:00 | After having used drones and helicopters to control the Italians in quarantine, | |
| 00:04 | now the government is preparing a marshaling of 60,000 guardians | |
| 00:08 | to follow Italians who leave the house. Enough. | |
| 00:12 | I would say the moment has been reached to also say, “Enough”. Let’s use our heads. | |
| 00:17 | Italians have demonstrated good sense, responsibility, | |
| 00:21 | and they deserve trust and freedom. Let’s use guardians | |
| 00:25 | to chase criminals and drug dealers, | |
| 00:29 | and not to spy on citizens who only want return to living | |
| 00:34 | and working with their heads on their shoulders. |