Fiumicino is known in Italy and elsewhere because it is where the capital's major airport is located.

But these days the city with around 82,000 inhabitants, southwest of Rome on the Tyrrhenian coast, is something like the front line in a national worldview battle.

It is carried out in parliament, in the media and also on the street.

More precisely: on the zebra crossing in front of the Fiumicino Town Hall.

On the occasion of the World Day Against Homophobia, Interphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia on Monday, Esterino Montino, Mayor of the PD, had the zebra crossing in front of the town hall of Fiumicino painted over in rainbow colors.

The pedestrian crossing in symbolic colors has immediately become a local attraction, it is used diligently as a background for selfies.

Matthias Rüb

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.

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    It is about the "Legge Zan", the bill named after the MP Alessandro Zan for a law against homophobia and transphobia from May 2018. Zan is a member of the social democratic Partito Democratico (PD) and one of the most famous LGBTQ activists in the country.

    The bill was passed by the House of Representatives on November 4, 2020 with 265 votes against 193.

    The members of the then ruling coalition of the left-wing populist five-star movement and PD under the then Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte voted for the law.

    The right-wing nationalist Lega of the former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party led by Giorgia Meloni rejected the law.

    Lega obstruction tactics?

    The “Legge Zan” was forwarded to the Senate for further reading and adoption.

    In the meantime, however, the Lega, which was still in opposition in November, has returned to the government camp: since February it has been part of the coalition led by Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, as the second strongest force after the five stars.

    The law provides prison sentences of up to four years for any form of violence and discrimination against people “because of their sexuality, gender, sexual orientation, gender identification and disability”.

    But in the Senate, the Lega has now introduced another bill on the subject, the "Legge Ronzulli-Salvini", developed jointly by Lega boss Salvini and Senator Licia Ronzulli from the liberal-conservative Forza Italia of the former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. According to the will of the right-wing parties, a good hundred experts, politicians and also church representatives should be heard on the subject - as part of the debate on the two “combined” bills. The left parties denounce an obstructionist tactic of their right-wing coalition partners: They suspect that they wanted to bring down the bill already adopted by the House of Representatives instead of debating it. The right-wing parties oppose that the "Legge Zan" in its current form would undermine freedom of expression and freedom of the press:If, for example, someone expresses his conviction that a child needs a father and a mother instead of two same-sex parents or that adoptions should only be allowed for heterosexual couples, this could be punished as hate speech according to "Legge Zan".

    The mayor of Fiumicino said that with his action he not only wanted to express his political support for the "Legge Zan", but also his personal solidarity with his wife Monica Cirinnà, PD Senator and LGBTQ activist. The mayor said that she was regularly insulted and threatened because of her political stance. The right-wing opposition parties in the town hall of Fiumicino accuse the mayor of violating the road traffic regulations with his color campaign: According to Article 145, a pedestrian crossing must be marked with a "zebra pattern with white stripes" and should not be colored at will. Mayor Montino rejected the criticism as unfounded and assured that there was no increased risk of accidents on the colorful zebra crossing.Opponents of the "Legge Zan" meanwhile wrote slogans against the law on the zebra crossing in rainbow colors on Tuesday night. City hall cleaners immediately removed the protest words.

    Catholic bishops seek compromise

    Meanwhile, the leadership of the Catholic Church is trying to find a compromise in the bitter dispute.

    The chairman of the Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, put the previous fundamental rejection of the bill into perspective in an interview with the newspaper "Corriere della Sera" on Monday.

    He continues to consider an additional law to be superfluous because any discrimination or even the use of force against minorities is prohibited under current law.

    However, if the representatives of the people are of the opinion that an additional law is needed, then its text must be formulated more clearly.

    In the present form, the prohibition of discrimination can apply to areas that have nothing to do with homophobia, insults or violence, said Bassetti.

    Which wing in the coalition will win the struggle for the planned anti-homophobia law remains to be seen. There is little to suggest that the dispute, in which artists, musicians and writers have also participated in the past few weeks, can soon be resolved. For Prime Minister Draghi, who himself is non-party, the ideological dispute within his coalition comes at an inopportune time. Draghi is trying to restore the country economically and morally after the pandemic. In conflicts, in his coalition and elsewhere, he tries to find a balance. Draghi has not yet participated in the dispute over the "Legge Zan". But he has to settle him at some point.