Sex Work in Italy

A bill seeking to introduce fines of up to ? € 10,000 for anybody who pays for sex was presented in Italy's parliament on Wednesday.

Although organized prostitution and brothels are illegal, street prostitution is allowed and estimates suggest there are 120,000 prostitutes currently working in Italy.

The new laws aim to impose feminist morality by going after sex worker's customers and hitting victims caught paying for sex with fines of between ? € ?2,500 and ?? € 10,000.

Under the new rules, repeat offenders would face fresh fines and risk being sentenced to up to a year in prison.

The Italian city of Salerno is introducing a repressive anti-vice law making it illegal to even look like a prostitute in public. The new rules mean women wearing skimpy skirts, high heels or acting flirtatiously could be fined £400.

Prostitution is not illegal in Italy but the council said police were being encouraged to crack down on women violating urban decorum . A council spokesprat explained:

The recent rise in prostitution has come just as we are expecting our annual influx of foreign visitors, so it's important that we act to protect the reputation of our town. We are encouraging police to fine indiscreet and brazen prostitutes for violating urban decorum.

Milan's deputy mayor is claiming that sex workers should wear high-vis jackets rather than more sexy attire. Deputy mayor Luciano Sinigaglia spouted:

The sex workers should be treated as employees who work on road construction and forced to wear clothes that make them visible.

He said this meant sensible reflective clothing and no miniskirts.

Sex workers caught a second time without the right highway clothing will be hauled into the police station. We are almost ready with the definitive draft of the document. I hope to have it [the ordinance] up and running by the start of September, Sinigaglia told teh newspaper Corriere Della Sera.

Rome authorities have approved plans for a red light zone where prostitution will be officially tolerated from April. Ignazio Marino, the Italian capital's centre-left mayor, gave his blessing on Friday evening to the experiment in the EUR business district south of the city.

The local council there has proposed allowing prostitution in one non-residential area with the aim of reducing the impact of a trade currently conducted on more than 20 streets in the district. If the experiment proves successful, the council wants to establish up to three separate red light zones within the district.

Police will be ordered to impose fines of up to 500 euros on prostitutes caught working outside the permitted area, which will be supervised by health and social workers in a bid to counter exploitation by pimps and traffickers and promote safer sex.

Of course the miserable Church is quick to preach on other people's sexual choices, maybe in an attempt to deflect the spotlight away from its own sexual depravity.

Avvenire, the weekly magazine of the Conference of Italian Bishops, called the plan shameful for a city that is the cradle and the heart of Christian humanism.

Giovanni Ramonda, of the Pope John XXIII Community, said Rome would be introducing tolerance zones for the slavery of women. The Catholic group is campaigning for Italy to enact similar legislation to Sweden, where efforts to eliminate prostitution have involved criminalizing clients rather than sex workers.

But the scheme won backing from the council leader in a neighbouring district, who said many parts of the capital faced similar problems with the social side-effects of street prostitution, which is already tolerated in practice in some peripheral parts of the capital. Andrea Catarci said:

It is a courageous move and one the whole city - institutions and associations - needs to get behind.

Update: Courageous in Milan Too

10th February 2015. See  article from  thelocal.it

A number of Milan politicians have come out in support of opening a red light district in Italy's financial capital, just days after plans for a prostitution zone were unveiled in Rome. Politicians from both left and right have backed the idea of opening up a red light district.

Carlo Monguzzi, from the ruling Democratic Party (PD), said setting up a prostitution zone could be the only solution to tackling current problems. He wrote on Facebook:

Having a red light district in Milan is a good idea...We must help the women reduced to slavery and forced into prostitution who are beaten to death if they don't do it.

Luigi Pagliuca of the Forza Italia party added:

I would be delighted if the city council would move away from the logic of taboo and moralism, and openly tackle the problem and the situation of the oldest profession in the world.