Two opposing marches, a garrison and a devastated gazebo: on that 18 February 2017 there was a lot of work for the police on a Saturday of particular tension in Monza.
It all started a few days earlier, on 13 February, when the Association of Friends and Descendants of the Exiles (Ades), linked to Lealtà Azione, had arranged to meet at the Villa Reale in Monza for the following Saturday to celebrate the Day of Remembrance, the commemoration in memory of the victims of the foibe.
The reaction of Anpi and Aned was immediate and they asked to be able to carry out a demonstration which was joined by other entities, from the CGIL to the Foa Boccaccio social centre.
The commissioner granted everyone a garrison but prohibited them from demonstrating in the streets of the city to prevent the two groups from coming into contact.
In fact, the militants of Lealtà Azione marched from their headquarters to the Villa Reale, where militants of the Brothers of Italy also found themselves with the current president of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa.
Video Lega, the attack on the gazebo in Monza during a demonstration in 2017
The Boccaccio militants also held a short procession and, from the social centre, crossed Via Italia, a pedestrian street in the centre, to arrive at the Anpi garrison.
Precisely on that street they passed next to a gazebo set up by the League for membership and destroyed it, with one of the two militants present from the Giovani Po Valley who shot a short video which was relaunched on the Carroccio's social networks.
"Here is the tolerance of comrades who love illegal immigrants and hate Italians: attacking, smashing, insulting! Shame on you, cowards!", wrote Matteo Salvini.
That video was the basis of the trial with four antagonistic defendants, including Ilaria Salis, a case that reached a ruling on December 1, 2023 with judge Maria Letizia Borlone who accepted the request for acquittal made not only by the defense but also by the public ministry, explaining that for the accused "the mere participation in the procession without participation or incitement to the criminal action cannot constitute a conspiracy hypothesis, not even a moral one".
Furthermore, in the reasons the judge wrote that Ilaria Salis put "her arm behind the back of a young man who had just thrown the Northern League flag to the ground, as if to invite him to continue in the procession".
The two League militants and also the city secretary of the Carroccio, Federico Arena, who later became Security Councilor with the new mayor Dario Allevi, who had physically filed the complaint, were heard as witnesses.
Despite being the offended party, the League did not act as a civil party in a trial which therefore ended at first instance, given that the prosecutor did not appeal.
For further information ANSA Agency Salvini: "It's absurd that Salis is a teacher".
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