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Massimiliano Fedriga is a prominent member of the Italian right-wing far right Lega and president of the northeastern region of Fruili-Venezia Giulia. He is also a recognized critic of the country's mandatory vaccination law, passed this month.
In a cruel irony, Fedriga had to be admitted to the hospital to recover from an ugly chickenpox – one of 12 diseases included in the "Lorenzin Law". He recently visited Facebook to announce his hospitalization after spending four days under observation.
"I'm fine, I'm at home recovering and I thank everyone," he writes.
"The Lorenzin Law" was first proposed in 2017 by the then Italian Health Minister, Beatrice Lorenzin, of the Popular Alternative party, who served in the ruling Italian coalition with the party Democrat.
At the time, Italy was at the center of a measles epidemic (it can be said that it is still continuing), which recorded 5,393 incidents and five deaths in 2017. For to put things into perspective, this corresponds to roughly the same number of measles cases reported overall. from Europe in 2016.
The law was put into practice on March 10, 2019, so that today, parents must provide documentation proving that their child has received all of the vaccines. A child without children will not be allowed to go to kindergarten or school. If this child is 7 to 16 years old, parents will also be subject to a fine.
For his part, Fedriga is fiercely opposed to the legislation and has been extremely critical in his criticism, even going so far as to call the Democratic Party "Stalinist" for introducing politics – revealing his understanding of the history is as vague as that of science.
However, after his stay at the hospital, Fedriga was quick to point out that he would not show up as an anti-vaxxer. He does not disagree with the vaccine period either. Instead, he says, his problem lies in the mandatory nature of the program, which "imposes" the policy on families.
"I read a series of comments on Twitter celebrating because I was hospitalized," wrote Fedriga.
"I have always said that I am in favor of vaccines, but to get the result, it is necessary to build alliances with families and not to impose them."
He adds that his own children received their vaccines: "They even said that my children would give me chickenpox, without knowing that my children are vaccinated (as I said during interviews)."
But aside from personal stories, many Fedriga critics say that his dismissal and his categorical opposition to the "Lorenzin law" – as they personally think about vaccines – allow anti-vaxxers.
Indeed, Comilva, one of the largest anti-vaccination groups in Italy, approved the North Lega in the run-up to the last elections. Unsurprisingly, party leader Matteo Salvini called the policy of compulsory vaccines "unnecessary and in many cases dangerous".
The partners of the Lega Nord populist coalition, the Five Star Movement (M5S), have also been criticized for their role in the anti-vaccination crisis. In 2015, the party even went so far as to propose a law against vaccines based on non-existent links between vaccinations and various health-related ills.
In another article published on Facebook, Robert Burioni, an Italian microbiologist, wrote: "Dear President, let me first wish you a speedy recovery."
By adding, "if he had infected a pregnant woman, we would be facing a poorly trained child or an abortion".
"The only way to avoid these tragedies is to vaccinate everyone to prevent the circulation of this dangerous virus, which could have touched a much more vulnerable person."
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