Regional Affairs Minister Francesco Boccia unveiled the "civic assistants" scheme on Sunday amid concern that people are mingling dangerously close to one another in Italy's post-lockdown phase.

The volunteers will not be "vigilantes but spreaders of good behaviour," Bari mayor and head of the Italian Mayors' Association (ANCI) Antonio Decaro told La Repubblica newspaper.

ANCI worked on the proposal with Boccia.

Volunteers would wear blue vests and work up to 16 hours per week, Boccia said. In comments to the La Stampa daily, he added that they would be armed with "the strength of persuasion, reason and their smiles".

A recruitment call, open to all but with priority given to the unemployed and recipients of welfare aid, should be published by the Civil Protection Agency this week, the minister wrote on Facebook.

But the populist Five Star Movement (M5S), the main party in the government alliance that includes Boccia's Democratic Party (PD), rejected the idea on Monday.

Boccia's initiative "does not convince me. And does not convince the M5S. For us, citizens should check on politicians, not on other citizens," M5S Senator Gianluca Castaldi tweeted.

Castaldi, also a junior cabinet office minister, called for Boccia to make a U-turn and discuss the proposal again with the entire government coalition.

"We don't need civic assistants," PD lawmaker Matteo Orfini wrote on Facebook. Former premier Matteo Renzi, whose Italy Alive party is also part of the ruling alliance, said he agreed.

Australian Associated Press