On Thursday evening it was time again. In Genoa, 8,000 citizens gathered and held up placards of roughly painted sardines. At the same time, thousands of people in Piacenza and Verona joined forces to celebrate the sardine affirmation of their desire for a peaceful, solidary community.
Almost every evening it's like this somewhere in Italy. Palermo, Rimini, Perugia, Florence and Naples - about 20 cities are to follow. Until the climax of the sardine demos, on December 14 in Rome.
Luca Zennaro / AP
Genoa, November 28: The sardine movement shows presence
Why are more and more Italians gathering in places and holding up cardboard boxes? Because they do not want Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing Lega, soon to rule Italy. Because Salvini sow hatred and discord to reap power.
The question remains, what sardines have to do with it. The fact that the protest movement is dominated by fish is due to four friends from Bologna - a political scientist and an engineer, a physiotherapist and a tourist guide. On a November night, they quarreled with the world in which Salvini would perform in her city three days later and open the Lega campaign for the upcoming regional elections in late January 2020.
Guglielmo Mangiapane / REUTERS
Mattia Santori, one of the founders of the sardines movement
Thousands would cheer Salvini, the friends feared. His crude slogans clap against foreigners, against Europe, against leftists and against media that have not yet been brought in line - on Salvinis line.
But the four friends complained that night not only of the decay of the left, the bourgeois democrats and the seemingly unstoppable advance of the new and old right. They also had an idea: a flash mob, coinciding with Salvini's performance, but with at least one more participant. Salvini performed in an indoor sports arena, she holds 5570 people.
Roar, insults and flags of political parties undesirable
That's why the four chose Piazza Maggiore for their purpose. There, if they are close together, up to 6000 people can stand there. And those who want to stop the passage of nationalists and right-wing populists must be close together, as the Bolognese friends thought, as close as a flock of sardines. So her Facebook call was clear: "6000 sardines against Salvini".
Marcello Coslovi / AP
Bologna, November 14: Flash mob against Salvini
Also because sardines are not loud and not violent, they fit the initiators well into the picture. Their movement should not be aggressive but creative: a leftist who does not scare, does not throw eggs and does not build barricades, but is nice and funny. That is why roaring and insults are just as undesirable in the demos as flags or banners of political parties. There is no stage for prominent speakers, just a microphone - for anyone who wants to say something.
And Salvini provides plenty of conversation. His popularity had suffered only briefly after he had completely gambled with the overthrow of the Lega government and the five-star movement in early September. Instead of head of government he was suddenly outside.
But soon he was back on top, the Lega won the regional election in the red stronghold of Umbria, is currently in the polls nationwide in first place at 30 percent. In the elections in eight regions next year, the Lega could march in alliance with the remnants of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the ever-growing Post-Fascist party Fratelli d'Italia (Italian Brothers).
Support of musicians and church people
This is not the only reason why many Italians have been waiting for a political movement like the sardines. The demo in Bologna was not as expected 6000 participants, but more than twice as many. Within a week, the Facebook page "L'Arcipelago delle Sardine" ("The archipelago of the sardines") had 46,000 members, now there are more than 160,000, and rising.
Support comes from many quarters: left-wing groups, ex-voters of the Five-Star Movement, middle-class people, musicians like the popular band Subsonica, disappointed Social Democrats, such as the well-known former MEP Elly Schlein. But also church people are involved, for example, the well-known by television appearances nun Sister Giuliana or a hitherto less well-known Tuscan pastor, who at the conclusion of the service, the left partisan song "Bella Ciao" tuned.
MAURIZIO BRAMBATTI / EPA-EFE / REX
Lega boss Salvini: "If you scratch the sardine, you'll find a PDler."
Matteo Salvini takes this as an insult and tries to turn the mood in the country against the sardines by depicting them as a disguised troop of PD Social Democrats: "If you scratch at the sardine, you will find a PDler." And of course he said everything against the movement via Twitter and Facebook - but it does not pull.
On the contrary. At least 54 local groups have been formed within two weeks, from Turin to Palermo. Even in New York, there was a little flash mob with italo sardines. In Modena, Salvini spoke in front of about 3000 supporters in an election campaign in support of his candidate for the regional elections - until 7000 sardines sang "Bella Ciao" and he retired to a restaurant.
And if the Lega boss on Saturday in Florence in front of a thousand dinner supporters supporters the big word, only three and a half kilometers away up to 25,000 participants are expected to sardine event. The dominance on the streets, so far his strength, Salvini has lost in some places.
Guglielmo Mangiapane / REUTERS
Mattia Sartori (front) on November 23 at a sardine demo in the Emilia-Romagna region
Further demonstrations in 20 cities have already been announced - from Milan to Syracuse - and at the final rally, on 14 December in Rome, the fish will even fill the main square in front of the Pope's Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano.
There, Salvini's right-wing coalition had its biggest appearance so far - according to police in front of about 70,000 supporters. The sardine movement dares to top that. One of the organizers even dreams of "up to one million" participants. How it goes on with the sardines afterwards, is so far open, further than to Rome, the initiators have not planned.