Italy’s Answer to Terrorism: All 18 Year Old European Citizens Living in Italy to Receive Free Money, Costing Tax Payers $300 Million

The catamites in Italy are taking bold steps to fight terrorist threats in the country, foisted upon them by unchecked migration of people from war stricken areas in the middled east.

Starting mid-September, over 500,000 18 year olds in Italy (EU citizens only, thanks) will be eligible to receive vouchers of $500, redeemable at museums, concerts, and cinema.

The fuckery is strong in Italy.

“It sends a clear message — a welcome for those who reach the age of 18 and a reminder of how crucial culture is, both for personal enrichment and for strengthening the social fabric of the country,” Tommaso Nannicini, the official in charge of the program, was quoted as saying last week.

According to the Italian government, the program is also intended to send a message to militant groups. When the scheme was announced last year, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi implied that extremists should be countered not only militarily, but also ideologically. The announcement came days after militant attacks in Paris killed at least 130 people. “They imagine terror, we answer with culture. They destroy statues, we love art. They destroy books, we are the country of libraries,” Renzi reportedly said, referring to a “cultural battle.”

But Italy’s approach is viewed as unprecedented: The government expects to spend about $300 million on the program, depending on how many eligible recipients claim the money. Theoretically, all 18-year-old European Union citizens living in Italy are allowed to apply. The program runs out at the end of next year.

Opposition parties have criticized the scheme as populist, but counterterrorism experts and international observers say it could be more effective than some other past efforts to counter youth radicalization.

Although the program was launched with the declared intent to counter radicalization efforts, the government has since been careful to label it a “culture bonus.”

“It is hard to say what is the best approach. But what we can say is what is the wrong one: a spying system that stigmatizes and excludes people,” Maina Kiai, the U.N. special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, said in a recent interview that focused on counter-radicalization schemes in Europe.

So, in summary, instead of spying on citizens of Europe, trying to find criminal elements in the country who are intent on blowing up people in cafes, they’re going to hug them, toss flowers at their AK-47s, and send them to the movies–gratis. I am certain that this ‘culture bonus’ is a secret way of tossing money out of helicopters, without actually saying they’re doing it. This is a trial run for a much larger programme.