OUR VIEW: The Euro Weekly News opinion on world news

OUR VIEW

Soft touch

DESPITE becoming the worst-hit country in Europe, Boris Johnson seems to be enjoying his popularity peak. Italy and the UK are the two European nations most badly affected by the coronavirus.

Italians are heartbroken that the British people are suffering the same fate as their families at home. Some have taken to social media to denounce the “naivety” of the PM when it came to containing the pandemic, even after watching the COVID destruction in Italy.

When the lockdown was finally put into place in the UK, many Italians couldn’t understand why people in Britain were allowed to exercise outdoors or even leave home without showing documents to the police. When the UK became the country with the worst COVID death toll in Europe, many Italians grieved with the Brits. Sadly, to others, it was kind of expected due to the UK’s relaxed lockdown.

Italians are now leaving the UK in droves to go back to their home country, according to the Italian embassy in London. The initially soft Covid-19 approach of the UK government generated a great deal of fear among Italians, and they decided it made more sense to leave. Just like the Brits, Italians are enormously proud of their healthcare system, which, not surprisingly, was mentioned by Johnson as an example of an excellent healthcare system unable to cope with the waves of victims from the pandemic.

Of course, every country has made its own mistakes against this invisible enemy. Italy made huge ones. Yet many in Italy are still wondering why the UK didn’t act immediately against the virus after the immense suffering in southern Europe. This has now generated a sort of general scepticism and distrust toward the British authorities among Italian citizens.