Repudiation in Italy of the violent anti-vaccine and neo-fascist demonstrations | Numerous marches and acts of solidarity with the CGIL trade union center in different cities of the country

From Rome

After the aggressive demonstrations of anti Green Pass last Saturday in Rome, Milan and other cities in Italy, the police arrested on Sunday 12 people in the Italian capital (another in Milan and 57 reported), including two leaders of the far right Forza Nuova considered as allegedly involved and / or responsible for the organization of this march where stole “bulging letters(Rudimentary explosive), stones and other objects against the police and public buildings.

In Rome, on the other hand, demonstrators stormed the headquarters of the Italian Confederation of Workers (CGIL, left), one of the three main trade union centers in Italy.

In principle, the demonstration had been organized, without police authorization as is required in Italy, in Piazza Navona to protest against the legal obligation of the Green Pass (the driver’s license, even in Europe and in other countries, which is obtained after the second dose of the covid vaccine) and From October 15, it will be compulsory in Italy to enter workplaces, whether public or private. Some demonstrators then headed for the CGIL headquarters in Corso d’Italia, not far from Via Veneto. There, they forced open the door and entered, destroying the glass, the doors, the walls, the furniture. The onslaught by protesters, mostly No Vacs (covid vaccine) and right-wingers, resembled the disaster caused by defenders of former President Donald Trump at the Washington Capitol last January. But of course, many smaller dimensions.

In Rome, another part of the population descends the Via del Corso towards the Chigi Palace, seat of government, and a few meters from the building of the Chamber of Deputies. The demonstrators were dispersed after a few hours of unrest and protests and with the intervention of the police who had to use tear gas (a very rare thing in Italy) and fire hydrant trucks.

But the attacks did not end there. During the night, another group of neo-fascists attacked the warden of the Umberto Primo hospital in Rome, perhaps to free one of those arrested who had been admitted to hospital because she was injured. They broke a guard gate, hit a nurse with a bottle. But apparently they were unable to remove the injured.

In fact, the idea of ​​this aggressive march was to cause panic and manipulate the No Green Pass for the benefit of the right. But some wonder if this act, with few precedents, at least in recent years in Italy, could not influence the choice of candidates – hurting the right – that citizens will have to do on October 17 and 18, when the second round will be held. municipal. elections in many Italian cities, including Rome and Turin (north).

Among those arrested Saturday and Sunday in Rome are at least two leaders of Forza Nuova, Roberto Fiore and Giuliano Castellino, but also Biaggio Pasano, leader of the organization “Io apro” (I open) a group of traders and restaurateurs who are They opposed the closure ordered by the Ministry of Health during the most aggressive months of the pandemic, and also Luigi Aronica, a former member of NAR (Núcleos Armados Revolucionario), a neo-fascist terrorist organization that emerged in the 1970s.

Some 38 representatives of the police and security forces were injured. The police, as it turned out, managed to identify 600 participants in the marches.

“Bella Ciao”, the solidarity of the people and the politicians

Prime Minister Mario Drgahi, through a statement issued by the government, “condemned the violence that took place on Saturday in several Italian cities”. The “right to express one’s ideas can never degenerate into acts of aggression and intimidation,” Draghi stressed.

On Sunday many walks and solidarity actions with the CGI were organizedL in various cities across the country. Even left-wing activists and members of the CGIL gathered in front of the door of this organization with red flags and singing a WWII-era song that alluded to anti-fascist resistance: “Bella Ciao”.

The current leader of CGIL, Maurizio Landini, called on the Italians to eliminate the precariousness of employment in the country. “There is a malaise in our country that must be remedied. It is time to make decisions, to apply the Constitution, it is also to dissolve certain organizations, ”he said, referring to the groups which organized the attacks on Saturday. But above all, according to Landini, social unrest must be resolved by putting work at the center of concerns ”.

“Total condemnation” of what happened on Saturday, “the president of Forza Italia (Silvio Berlusconi, center-right) called Landini by telephone to express his solidarity. It was a despicable act that must be condemned without a doubt, ”Forza Italia national coordinator Antonio Tajani told reporters, not without specifying beforehand that his party has nothing to do with these characters and that in these acts of violence, it mixes neo-fascist violence with others which must be carefully analyzed ”.

The largest representative of the Democratic Party (center-left), Enrico Letta, for his part went to the CGIL headquarters in Rome on Sunday to express his solidarity. “We must not let our guard down,” he said, “and we must be clear about the dissolution of Forza Nuova. We will present a motion to Congress. Our Constitution is very clear in this regard. Forza Nuova must be used. Worse, we must be very attentive to the next events and take effective precautions ”. The Italian Constitution, born after the Second World War, specifies, among other things, that the fascist parties cannot be reorganized.

“We cannot accept that violence of this kind exists in our country,” commented the current head of the Five Star Movement, former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, “when he left the CGIL where he went to express his solidarity. For which I trust the assessment that justice will make. But I also believe that the conditions exist to dissolve Forza Nuova ”.