mortifying 7-day postponement is a defeat for all

“For the gyms there was an intense dialogue also with the CTS, we have varied and contradictory news. Very often protocols are followed, other times not. We will give one week to adapt the protocols and verify compliance. If it happens there will be no reason to close the gyms, otherwise next week we will also be forced to suspend the gyms and swimming pools. “The words of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, at a press conference at Palazzo Chigi on Sunday the night, they left many perplexed.

“7 days in the gyms”

Conte’s words are mortifying for an entire sector, of course, but also for the conception of the role of the State that they reveal. The state must enforce the rules, without placing responsibility on citizens in this case as well. Giving entrepreneurs who manage gyms and swimming pools seven days to adapt shows that they endorse a punitive role on the part of the institutions.

All this while thousands of operators in the sector have spent money (many times a lot of money), to adapt their structures to the required protocols, regulating accesses with the necessary quota, investing in equipment for cleaning the premises, etc. And now they find themselves, not even as undisciplined little students, with a “warning” -among other things vague and undefined- floating above them, all of them at risk of closure, due to the faults of a few. The possible closure is not an indiscretion, said the president of the Council of Ministers who lives at the national level, to almost unified networks (as long as the words have a weight, sometimes doubt arises).

Many lose a point that, on the contrary, is fundamental: the State cannot and should not threaten those who do not respect the current norms. Instead, he is tasked with enforcing the rules, fining, sanctioning, providing even more serious penalties in certain cases, but standing up for all those who abide by the rules. If, on the contrary, the generalized closures of gyms are threatened at random because there are some who do not respect the rules, the government of Giuseppe Conte unconsciously admits that it cannot guarantee the control of the territory. A defeat for all.

No breakouts in gyms

Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora launched an appeal: “Be careful and respect the rules as much as possible, in the gym as in any other place. It is a really critical moment, we have not yet won our war against the coronavirus. […] We have already asked many sacrifices to the world of sport, one of the sectors most affected by the epidemic, above all we have asked the managers for substantial investments to diligently comply with strict measures ”. , he adds: “I thought not only of the many managers and sports workers and those who go to gyms for their psychophysical well-being but also of the many young people, girls and boys, who are severely tested by the rules imposed by the emergency health and that they find in the hours they dedicate to the practice of sport an important moment of liberation and relaxation, essential for their balance ”.

The minister then explained that “no scientific evidence denounces outbreaks in relation to individual training in controlled places”, and that in his opinion “it would have been worse to push thousands of enthusiasts and young people to city parks than to continue in places that respect the normative”. and protocols “. The intention is, therefore, to keep the gyms, swimming pools and sports centers open with their rigorous protocols and with total security. Starting today, however, 7 days of exam for gyms and swimming pools begin: with the doubt of that if the contagion numbers get even worse, they are destined to be targeted.

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