Italian police said on Wednesday that Prime Minister George Meloni and her 6-year-old daughter had received online death threats from an unemployed man angered by government plans to cut subsidies to fight poverty.
It turned out that the threat was a 27-year-old man from Sicily, whose behavior was under investigation. A police statement said his home was ransacked and his Twitter account closed.
Meloni’s right-wing government is aiming to cut the so-called “citizens’ income” plan next year, preparing for its total abolition in 2024 to replace it with new concessions, the details of which have yet to be released.
Meloni, who took office in October, has long been critical of the “citizens’ income” scheme introduced in 2019, arguing that healthy people of working age should not be allowed to live on government benefits indefinitely.
Under the proposals included in the 2023 budget, which is currently being debated in Parliament, “citizen’s income” payments will end in eight months, except for families with children, those aged 60 and over, and people with disabilities.
