Call it the Danse Macabre.
An Italian mayor was slapped with a fine of 280 euros (about $305) after he was caught dancing and bumping hips with someone despite nationwide social-distancing orders to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
Gaetano Scullino, mayor of the northern Italian city Ventimiglia, was wearing gloves and a surgical face mask when he was filmed gyrating next to an anonymous individual on a balcony overlooking the town. The camera pans down to show neighbors also boogying on their rooftops.
“I did something stupid,” the mayor says, according to ANSA, a news outlet serving the region of Liguria, which includes the Italian Riviera.
The Mediterranean nation has suffered more than 200,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far, surpassed only by Spain and the US, and more than 27,000 deaths as a result.
Scullino’s office had enforced strict measures on Ventimiglia, requiring citizens to wear a mask and gloves in public at all times, according to local Italian news reports.
The mayor of the coastal city, just 10 miles from Monaco, was originally ordered to pay 400 euros (about $437), for putting another at risk with his potentially deadly dance moves, but the fee was reduced for paying ahead of the 30-day limit.
“They called me because the sewage system wasn’t working, and then asked if I wanted to have coffee,” Scullino tells ANSA of how he ended up at this terrace party.
“Every experience is useful to understand that every act can have consequences,” he continues. “We have to understand how to take responsibility for what comes from that act.”
The shamed politician isn’t the only Italian breaking out and getting caught. Last week, a beachgoer on the sands of Rimini, on Italy’s eastern Adriatic coast, was also fined by local law enforcement after a police drone spotted the sunbather in reverie.