ITALY HAS been seen as a land of suave seducers since the days of Casanova. In the post-MeToo era that image is less attractive, but rebranding is not proving easy. In mid-November the lower house of Italy’s parliament unanimously passed a law requiring explicit consent to engage in sex, which would bring it in line with much of the rest of Europe. But the populist-right League party has since withdrawn its support, meaning more hearings and possible revisions in the Senate.
The bill, championed by Laura Boldrini, a former speaker of parliament from the centre-left Democratic Party, redefines rape as any sexual act without “free and current” consent. Women’s-rights advocates call it a cultural turning point, rejecting the courts’ familiar tendency to blame victims for not resisting sufficiently. Opponents argue that it shifts the burden of proof in rape cases to the defendant, and would require lovers to bring microphones into the bedroom.
But the League’s newfound objections may be less a matter of principle than of politics. Ms Boldrini accuses Matteo Salvini, the party’s leader, of staging a political stunt to outflank the governing Brothers of Italy, another populist-right party. “A part of society is misogynistic,” says Ms Boldrini, and Mr Salvini “acted as its spokesman”.
In fact, many Italians already take it for granted that passivity cannot be interpreted as consent. The country’s legal landscape is not far behind others’: France only recently passed a consent-based rape law, driven by widespread horror over the case of Gisèle Pelicot, whose husband arranged for other men to rape her while she was unconscious. The debate has been sharpened in Italy by several cases involving elite circles. Ciro Grillo, the son of the founder of the Five Star Movement, a left-wing party, was convicted in September of participating in a gang rape. The son of the speaker of the Senate faces charges of spreading revenge porn.
Attention to gender-based violence has been rising since the murder of Giulia Cecchettin, a university student, by her ex-boyfriend in 2023. Indeed, on the same day the consent reform stalled, parliament passed a law criminalising femicide—the murder of a woman as an act of hate or control, or because she did not want a sexual relationship—with a maximum punishment of life in prison. But on the preventive front, the government is heading the opposite way. It recently added restrictions on sex education in schools. While imposing harsh penalties for gendered violence, Italy is reluctant to teach adolescents how to respect boundaries in their sex lives.
The League, says Ms Boldrini, is on board with fighting violence against women, but “culturally rejects” the link to sex education. The risk is that “if we do not change people’s thinking through education about relationships and sex, criminal laws will not be enough.” The Senate is likely to take up the law in the new year. Supporters fear it may die or be significantly diluted. For a country long steeped in machismo, the upcoming months may prove as decisive as any trial. ■
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