Under new government guidance, a mass email alone may no longer be enough to empty classrooms, but the centre-left says it won’t hand ministers a “blank cheque”.
A fresh wave of emailed bomb threats reached head teachers at several schools in Italy on Thursday morning, prompting some to evacuate while authorities carried out checks at others.
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The messages were signed “Mikhail Andropov”, the same name that appeared on emails received on Wednesday by 6,300 Italian schools. Hundreds of those schools chose to evacuate pupils and staff.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called government representatives and opposition leaders to Palazzo Chigi, her office in Rome, on Thursday morning to discuss the emergency.
At the meeting, Meloni reportedly asked all political parties to show unity. She also promised that Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi would urgently brief parliament.
The government said the Interministerial Committee for the Security of the Republic (CISR) would meet in the afternoon to agree a common protocol for handling such threats.
Under the proposed protocol, schools should not be evacuated if the only sign of danger is a mass email. Prefects, who represent the central government in each province, would still be able to order an evacuation where there are specific and concrete risks.
“The discussion is welcome but it must continue in the appropriate venues, which are parliament and Copasir,” said Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), after the meeting. Copasir is the parliamentary committee that oversees Italy’s intelligence services.
“As the opposition, we are fully willing to cooperate in the face of threats aimed at destabilising the country and creating alarm, but we will not give the government a blank cheque on the decisions it takes. Today we did not receive any specific proposals,” she added.