Overview
- An amendment approved unanimously in the Chamber’s Justice Commission rewrites Article 609-bis to make sex without “free and current” consent a crime.
- The penalty remains imprisonment from six to twelve years, with possible reductions up to two-thirds in lesser cases.
- The text broadens liability to acts exploiting the victim’s “particular vulnerability,” referencing conditions outlined in Article 90-quater of the criminal procedure code.
- The measure was presented by relators Carolina Varchi (FdI) and Michela De Biase (PD) after a bipartisan negotiation reported to have involved Meloni and Schlein.
- In parallel, a government bill on school sexuality projects spurred a heated exchange with Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara and would require parental informed consent and exclude such extracurricular topics in nursery, primary and lower-secondary grades.