Italian MPs received coronavirus relief payments meant for self-employed

The Italian government is seeking to discover the identities of five deputies who are alleged to have received a relief payment intended to support the self-employed during the coronavirus lockdown.A report in the newspaper La Repubblica on Sunday also revealed that 2,000 regional and local politicians applied to receive the bonus, which ranged between €600 (£540) and €1,000, from INPS, Italy’s social security and pensions agency.The revelation has provoked outrage in Italy, with leaders of all parties calling for the identities of the parliamentarians, who are protected by a privacy law, to be made public and for them to resign.It is suspected that three of the parliamentarians are with the far-right League party, one is with the Five Star Movement (M5S), ruling nationally alongside the Democratic party, and one is a member of Italia Viva, the party set up last year by the former prime minister Matteo Renzi.