Meloni and the ideological war against the expansion of rights: from non-objecting doctors to minimum wages and end-of-life care.
The case of Sicily and Tuscany
The Brothers of Italy seem to have a recurring target: they challenge regional laws that expand rights, laws that go against their ideology.
It's true that the executive branch can challenge a regional law before the Constitutional Court if it believes it violates the Constitution or exceeds its jurisdiction. This isn't absurd: Article 127 of our Constitution establishes it. But the Brothers of Italy party seems to have a recurring target: they challenge regional laws that expand rights. Those that go against their ideology.
One example is what happened with Law No. 23 of June 5, 2025, issued by the Sicilian Region , which requires the island's public hospitals to hire doctors who are not conscientious objectors. This measure was born out of a concrete emergency: 80% of gynecologists there are conscientious objectors. This seriously jeopardized access to abortion in Sicily's public facilities, forcing many women to move elsewhere. However, the government ultimately deemed the provisions of that regional law "unconstitutional and instrumental" because—according to FdI in particular—the right to conscientious objection is protected as an expression of personal freedom. And Law 194 alone is sufficient to guarantee the implementation of the right to abortion.
Then there's the case of Tuscany's Law No. 30 of June 18, 2025, on the minimum wage, which essentially favors companies that pay their employees at least €9 gross per hour in public tenders. Virtuous, one might say. But no: the government also considers this law unconstitutional because, this time, they explain, competition law is the responsibility of the state, not the regions. Hence the comment from Democratic Party Secretary Schlein: "Once again, the Meloni government has shown its fear of the minimum wage; it's scandalous." The Democratic Party leader, however, pledged to bring the minimum wage back to Parliament and promised that the issue " will be central to all the regional platforms up for election."
The "challenges" then took aim at another Tuscan law, the one on end-of-life care (on which, we recall, the government drafted a bill that is, to say the least, exclusionary for many seriously ill patients, as denounced by associations that have been working on the issue for years). This is essentially the first law in Italy that defines specific timelines and procedures for the response the regional healthcare system is required to give to terminally ill patients who request access to physician-assisted suicide and meet the requirements. This time, the government explains, the Tuscan law " absolutely falls outside the regional jurisdiction and infringes on the exclusive powers of the state." Representatives of the majority, when questioned on the issue, had spoken of the risk of " Harlequin legislation " varying from region to region. Unfortunately, however, that same regional law specifies that the procedure is valid " until the state legislation comes into force." But it matters little: the executive cannot do so. Rather than filling the rights gap: the government "challenges" those who wish to remedy the situation.
l'Unità
