New clashes pitted the police against demonstrators this Saturday, October 31 in Rome against the restrictions imposed to counter an alarming increase in Covid-19 contaminations, after already similar incidents the day before in Florence.
Demonstrations for the same reasons, interspersed with violence and degradation, were already held at the beginning of the week in Rome, Naples, Milan and Turin.
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In the early evening on Saturday, a rally at Campo dei Fiori, Rome's famous square, escalated when some of the hundreds of protesters in attendance threw bottles and firecrackers at police, who dispersed them in riot gear.
A second gathering in Rome ended in the same way.
As of Friday evening, the situation had already escalated in Florence, where around 20 people were arrested during an unauthorized demonstration of around 200 people.
Some protesters threw Molotov cocktails, bottles and stones at police, knocked over trash cans and smashed surveillance cameras.
"
We lived a surreal, terrible and painful night in Florence,
" wrote the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, on his Facebook page on Saturday morning.
“
This is not how we express our grievances, this is not how we express our suffering.
It is only violence for violence, free
”.
According to the general secretary of the Florence police union, Riccardo Ficozzi, troublemakers are “
delinquents
” who do not represent those who wanted to demonstrate legally.
These excesses in Florence, but also in other Italian cities, are the fact of "
violent extremists who try (...) to exploit the social and economic malaise in these difficult times
", declared the Minister of Interior, Luciana Lamorgese, in the newspaper
Il Foglio
.
According to him, these are mainly young people with a criminal past, hooligans and far-right activists who “
seek to profit from legitimate demonstrations
”.
Read also: Covid-19: from Naples to Turin, Italians "in revolt" refuse to lower the curtain
31,758 new cases this Saturday
In Bologna (northeast), 80 km away, a few hundred people also demonstrated on Friday evening, mostly young men including hooligans, some making the fascist salute, reported the daily La Repubblica.
Video footage shows the newspaper's video reporter strongly attacked and driven out.
“
Journalist, terrorist!
Cried the crowd.
Italy recorded 31,758 new cases of coronavirus this Saturday, a new record.
The government has imposed in recent days what the media qualify as "
semi-containment
": a curfew in several large regions, the closure of bars and restaurants at 6 p.m., as well as that of sports halls, cinema and the concert.
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Painful measures for a country which must experience its worst recession this year since the Second World War, but essential according to the government.
The latter, according to Italian media, is considering confinement of the country's major cities, starting with Milan and Naples, to try to curb the contaminations.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte could announce these new measures on Monday, according to the media, which also mentions a ban on movement between the different regions and the closure of shops in
urban “
red zones
”.
“
We are meeting with experts and thinking about stepping in again,
” Giuseppe Conte told Il Foglio.