Gianluca Buonanno, the Northern League mayor of Borgosesia in Piedmont, northern Italy, announced his plans for a new firearm fund on Facebook

An Italian mayor has vowed to pay citizens €250 towards the cost of a gun after accusing the country's government of failing to protect 'honest Italians' with its 'jail-emptying laws'.

Gianluca Buonanno, the Northern League mayor of Borgosesia in Piedmont, northern Italy, announced his plans for a new firearm fund on Facebook.

He said he was doing so to allow people to 'defend themselves from delinquents, who the government is privileging'.

Buonanno, who serves as an MEP, has also asked the European Commission to set up a similar fund. The €250 being offered is about 30 per cent of the cost of a small pistol in Italy, according to La Repubblica.

The announcement has been met with criticism by some, including a woman who grew up on a farm just outside Borgosesia.

Michele Scotti told The Local: 'A gun bonus is crazy. My dad has been a farmer all his life and has managed fine without a gun. What do the citizens of Borgosesia want with one?'

The right-wing Northern League party has been particularly vocal in recent weeks on the right of Italian citizens to own and use guns for self-defence.

It follows a number of high-profile shootings.

Party leader Matteo Salvini was angered by a decision on Tuesday to investigate a pensioner for voluntary manslaughter. It was made after a 28-year-old Romanian burglar was shot in the elderly man's home in Vaprio d'Adda, near Milan.

There are around seven million firearms in circulation in Italy, according to a 2007 study, and an estimated 12 per cent of the population possesses at least one gun.

The announcement of the fund comes three months after residents of an Italian province were told they can have a bottle of wine before driving and keep their licence.

Carlo Sessa, the prefect of Avellino in the south of the country, introduced new rules which mean drivers who have consumed eight glasses - about one bottle - could only be fined £560.

The move has been slammed by road safety groups who say it sends the message that it is 'OK to drive drunk'.