FLORENCE - Almost 200 people on Ponte Vecchio in Florence, with signs and banners, attended the event that kicks off the 'March of the Restaurateurs' which, on foot, from the Tuscan capital will reach Rome on 13 November.
A march to bring to the government the requests of the categories most affected by the consequences of the pandemic and the lockdown: restaurateurs, street vendors, artisans, taxi drivers, NCC and traders.
The protest was organized by the Restaurateurs Tuscany group and by Tni, Tutela Nazionale Imprese, and opened with a minute's silence in memory of the restaurateur who, on August 22, took his own life in Florence for concerns about the future of his activity: "A minute of silence so that Luca's sacrifice does not go to waste", said Pasquale Naccari, spokesman for the Restaurateurs Tuscany group.
Chef Gianfranco Vissani also participates in the event.
The restaurateurs in protest march against the Dpcm will reach San Casciano Val di Pesa (Florence) tonight, then the next stops will be San Gimignano, Siena, San Quirico d'Orcia, Bolsena, Montefiascone, Viterbo, Sutri, La Storta and, finally, Rome, where they should arrive on November 13th.
From San Gimignano they will follow the Francigena, the ancient pilgrim route from France to Rome.
For today's initiative, the organizers have placed banners on the Arno river near Ponte Vecchio.
There other demonstrators gathered during the event: according to Restauratori Toscana, the total participants would have been a thousand.
On the Ponte Vecchio a large banner was displayed with the words 'Bridges for the future', the motto of the initiative.
"With these destructive measures the government is destroying these bridges", accuses Naccari, according to whom "the only thing they can say is to close, it seems that they give us a lot of money. In reality they did not give us a c ...; yes they fill their mouths just to talk about tax evasion, but nobody ever talks about wasting public money, because the responsibility is theirs: that's enough, we will never accept political leaders who point to us as tax evaders ".
With the closure of the lockdown, complains the president of Restaurateurs Toscana, "we will reduce ourselves to being automatons, slaves at the service of multinationals, beings who exist only to work and consume, we will live our lives closed at home with smart working, at risk it is the whole of society, and we cannot accept it. Let's wake up and unite, let's take back our lives, let's go back to the values of our grandparents that politics sacrifices today on the altar of its incompetence ".
Demonstrators' demands to the government include the suspension of all taxes, the abatement of rents, the freezing of evictions, a grant for the period of closure appropriate to the recorded job losses, and a tax credit. proportional to the loss of turnover.
Vissani to restaurateurs in Florence, 'Be careful who you vote for'
"Do you think you can re-elect such a government? You have to be careful what you vote for".
Chef Gianfranco Vissani said this, addressing the protesters who, in Florence, gathered to kick off the 'March of the Restaurateurs' protest which, on foot, will reach Rome on 13 November.
"The strength is us, it's not them, they are 1,000 senators and deputies and we must elect them", added Vissani.
"I don't care - he continued - politics, neither on the right nor on the left, but I want to share with my colleagues the difficult moment we are going through".
According to the famous chef "we have to live with this Covid: there are no stories, years will pass, maybe even 3-4 years, but we have to live with this Covid. France and Germany did not close like us, they did Sweeter. In Switzerland, 30 km from Milan, restaurants still close at 10 pm We have to live "with Covid" and we must be united ".
Ncc adhere to 'March of the Restaurateurs' with 55 vehicles
The National Coordination of NCC adheres to the 'March of the Restaurateurs': 25 vehicles and 30 Ncc buses, according to a note, will accompany the participants in the initiative organized by the Tuscany Restaurateurs group on the journey from Florence he will take them to Rome on foot on 13 November.
In these ten days, the NCCs will offer logistical support to all participants, joining the national mobilization.
"We are exasperated and the lack of attention and consideration pushes us to demonstrate, by any means and in any location", says Giorgio Dell'Artino, of the Coordination, according to which "we have not worked for months and we have only received alms", and therefore "we are willing to make our voices heard, even with sensational protests".
For Dell'Artino no non-repayable support has been provided, no bonus, only the extension of a few months of leasing payments, taxes, mortgages, contributions.
Nothing of what is needed now to move forward ".
