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Rome’s Piazza San Giovanni staged a massive march against fascism and neo-fascist movements, which last week attacked the headquarters of the oldest union in Italy. The promoters of the protest, with other unions and political party leaders, called for the elimination of the far-right Forza Nuova party, which unfortunately brings to mind the country’s authoritarian past.
More than 50,000 people demonstrated this Saturday in the center of Rome against fascism and to request the government to outlaw movements or groups arising from this ideology, also involved in violent protests last weekend.
The march was called by the largest unions in the nation, under the slogan ‘no to fascism and violence; yes to work, security and rights’, and reached the Piazza San Giovanni, scene of historical demands.
Maurizio Landini, general secretary of the Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGIL), the oldest union in the country, called for concrete acts against neo-Nazi groups and stated that “it is time for the (Italian) state to demonstrate its democratic strength in enforcing of the laws and the Constitution “.
“A country that loses its memory cannot have a future,” said Landini, a week after members of Forza Nuova violently stormed the headquarters of their union, during a march to protest vaccines that led to clashes with the police.
An eye on the country’s fascist legacy
Landini also referred to the October 9 demonstrations as a replica of “squadronism,” a word used to refer to the fascist militias that began operating after the First World War.
The CGIL union was attacked on October 9 in a very violent way by neo-fascist militants of the Forza Nuova party.
The protests of the ‘anti-vaccines’ of the previous Saturday occurred against the “Green Pass” or health pass, which requires all workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19, present a negative test for the virus or show a recent recovery certificate of the illness.
The demonstrations degenerated into strong clashes with the riot police in the center of the capital. Several policemen were injured and there were also 12 detainees. Among those arrested, two Forza Nuova leaders who remain in custody after a judge’s decision.
The violent protests drew widespread condemnation in Italian society, including from Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni, the leaders of the Italian League and Brothers parties.
For Filippo Grassi, one of the attendees, “what happened last week is unacceptable, not so much because of the place it was attacked and the way it was taken, but because of the very idea of pursuing civil liberties, freedom of expression. , the freedom to think and act “.
The center-left Democratic Party, which has spearheaded calls for a ban on Forza Nuova, said its petition for Parliament to make a final decision against the party had gathered 100,000 signatures.
This Saturday’s demonstration coincides with the 78th anniversary of the Nazi incursion into the Jewish ghetto in Rome, where more than 1,000 Jews, including 200 children, were arrested in the early morning of October 16, 1943 and deported to the concentration camp of Auschwitz.
With EFE, Reuters and AFP
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