Italian Intellectuals No Green Pass: Cacciari, Agamben, and the Anti-Vaxx Rhetoric

A group of prominent Italian intellectuals—Massimo Cacciari, Giorgio Agamben, Ugo Mattei, and Carlo Freccero—have aligned with the No Green Pass movement, sparking controversy. They signed a manifesto and planned a Facebook live event on December 8, 2021, organized by 'Generazioni future Rodotà', a cooperative named after the late jurist Stefano Rodotà. In a letter published on the website of the Istituto italiano degli studi filosofici di Napoli, Cacciari and Agamben compared the Green Pass to discriminatory practices in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, calling it a threat to democracy. Agamben, in a Senate hearing on December 7, 2021, claimed that the first state to mandate health interventions was Nazi Germany, citing a 1933 law that led to forced sterilization of 400,000 people. He also downplayed COVID-19 mortality at 0.2%. Maria Laura Rodotà, Stefano Rodotà's daughter, publicly rebuked the intellectuals on Twitter, stating her father would have been vaccinated and would not have tolerated such 'pirla' (fools). The article criticizes the intellectuals for legitimizing conspiracy theories and undermining scientific evidence, while noting that some media outlets like La7 and Rai2 have refused to give a platform to anti-vaxxers. The piece also highlights the global vaccine inequality gap and argues that the pandemic response should focus on care and solidarity.