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Italy blocks anti gay-bashing law after Vatican lobbying
By EUobserver
The Italian senate voted by 154 to 131 on Wednesday to block a new law criminalising homophobic and misogynist attacks as well as violence against disabled people. Far-right parties had said it would lead to "homosexual propaganda" and the Vatican had said it would curb "freedom of thought". But for Pina Picierno, a centre-left MEP, the decision was "one of the worst pages in the history of the Italian republic".