Government to write off covid-era vaccine fines.

The Italian government of right-wing premier Giorgia Meloni is to write off unpaid fines issued during the covid pandemic to people who refused to take the compulsory vaccine.

This means that the €100 fines imposed on people who did not get vaccinated against covid will be cancelled, as will pending court cases relating to non-payment of the pandemic-era sanctions.

Over the last two years the government had suspended the payment of the unpaid fines from year to year, however now the sanctions will be written off definitively.

The move is part of the so-called Milleproroghe decree - approved on Monday evening - an annual raft of measures designed to extend or wrap up expiring laws.

Government sources earlier on Monday denied that those who paid the €100 fines would be reimbursed, after reports that this measure was included in a draft version of the legislation.

Nino Cartaballotta, president of the Gimbe public health think tank, slammed the decision to bin the unpaid covid-era fines as a "counter-educational and disrespectful vote-catching amnesty".

In 2021 the government under former prime minister Mario Draghi made vaccination mandatory for health workers, police and teachers before extending the order to everyone aged over 50.

A refusal resulted in suspension from work without pay for public employees, while those aged over 50 were handed fines of €100.

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