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Neo-fascists join football fans in Rome coronavirus protest

Hundreds of Italian neo-fascists and hardcore football fans gathered in Rome's Circus Maximus on Saturday to protest against the government's coronavirus response.

Published: 7 June 2020 10:32 CEST
Neo-fascists join football fans in Rome coronavirus protest
Police take on far-right protesters in Rome. Photo: ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP

Some protesters threw bottles and smoke bombs towards police and journalists after a fight between two demonstrators, apparently sparked when one began talking to the media.

Shouts of “journalists, terrorists” could be heard as a line of shield-wielding police formed a barrier at the rally.

The organisers wrote on the “Boys of Italy” Facebook page, popular with neo-fascist and so-called ultra fans, that they were standing “side by side” with people who “no longer know how to put a plate on the table for their children”.

'Stopgap' or life saver?: Italy's scheme to help the self-employed survive the coronavirus crisis

“It is not and will not be a violent protest, nor will it carry a political label,” the group wrote.

Some politicians and anti-fascist organisations had called the rally illegal.

The police arrested eight people, according to Il Messaggero newspaper, and an initial crowd of roughly 2,000 quickly dwindled to a few hundred.

Hardcore fans from big clubs such as Lazio took part, but other fans said they would not be joining. Inter Milan's largest ultra group, for example, said the protest was too political.

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ROME

Rome square filled with coffins in protest over Italy’s workplace deaths

A thousand coffins filled one of Rome's most famous squares on Tuesday as a trade union made a powerful statement on Italy's high number of deaths in accidents at work.

Published: 19 March 2024 17:01 CET
Rome square filled with coffins in protest over Italy's workplace deaths

“Every year, one thousand people go to work and don’t come home,” read a large sign displayed next to the 1,041 cardboard coffins set up around the obelisk in the centre of the Piazza del Popolo.

“Zero is still too far away,” read another sign in the square as curious tourists took snapshots.

Last year, 1,041 people died in workplace accidents in Italy.

“We brought these coffins here to raise awareness, to remind everyone of the need to act, to not forget those who have lost their lives,” Pierpaolo Bombardini, general secretary of the UIL union behind the protest told AFPTV.

The protest was also intended “to ask the government and politicians to do something concrete to prevent these homicides” he added.

“Because these are homicides. When safety rules are violated, they are not accidents, but homicides.”

Cardboard coffins fill Rome’s Piazza del Popolo on March 19th in a protest by the Italian Labor Union (UIL) intended to draw public attention to the number of deaths at work in Italy. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP)

Fatal accidents in the workplace regularly make headlines in the Italian press, each time sparking a debate on risk prevention. Most recently a concrete structure collapsed on the construction site of a supermarket in Florence last month, killing five people working at the site.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denounced it as “another story… of people who go out to work, who simply go out to do their job, and do not come home”.

Bombardini called for an increase in the number of inspections and inspectors.

“Companies that violate safety standards must be closed down,” he added. According to Eurostat’s most recent statistics, from 2021, on EU-wide workplace fatalities, Italy had 3.17 deaths per 100,000 workers.

That was above the European average of 2.23 per 100,000 works but behind France at 4.47 and Austria at 3.44.

The European Union’s three worst-faring countries are Lithuania, Malta and Latvia, while work-related fatalities are lowest in the Netherlands, Finland and Germany.

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