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Riots in Naples: "We will now close everything"
Photo: salvatore Laporta / IPA / imago images / Independent Photo Agency Int.
"We are one step away from the tragedy," said Vincenzo De Luca, president of the southern Italian region of Campania, in a video on Facebook on Friday.
And then spoke about the new measures in the fight against the further spread of the corona virus: on the one hand, about the curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., which came into force on Friday - and, on the other hand, about plans for a new shutdown.
"We will now close everything," said De Luca - with the exception of the companies that produce and transport important goods.
The latest data showed that the measures imposed so far had no effect, said De Luca.
"We have to make one last effort to get things under control."
The shutdown could take a month or 40 days, said De Luca.
The regional decree implementing the measure is to be adopted either on Saturday or Sunday, reported the Ansa news agency, citing regional government circles.
Luca also called on the government in Rome to impose a nationwide lockdown.
The reactions of the population to the announcements were sometimes violent: In Campania's capital, Naples, hundreds of people protested at night against the curfew and the planned lockdown for the region.
There was real street fighting.
The demonstrators chanted slogans and, among other things, marched in front of the headquarters of the regional government.
They threw fireworks and set off smoke bombs, Ansa reported.
According to Rainews24, stones were also thrown at the police.
"Naples is a powder keg again," reads the news channel's website.
According to the Ansa, the police used tear gas against the protesters.
Foreign Minister Di Maio: "No excuse for this violence"
Regional President De Luca condemned the riots sharply in a Facebook post: "A few hundred delinquents have soiled the image of the city," wrote the regional president.
It was an unworthy show of violence and an organized guerrilla action.
He made it clear that he would not stray a step from his strict line.
"There is no excuse for this violence," wrote Italy's Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on his Facebook profile.
Nothing of what happened during the night is "acceptable".
"Nobody should allow themselves to attack women and men in the police force."
He also embedded a video in his post that shows the riots.
Deputy Interior Minister Matteo Mauri issued a statement condemning the "urban guerrilla" and the attacks on the police.
"It is absolutely clear that this was not a spontaneous protest, but a deliberate act organized almost exclusively by fringe groups, criminal groups and political extremists," said Mauri.
"What happened in Naples last night is extremely serious," he added.
The news website Fanpage accused members of the local Camorra mafia and hardcore hooligans from Naples of having sparked the protests, which were also supported by the neo-fascist Forza Nuova party.
"May Naples be the first city to rise up against the health dictatorship," said Forza Nuova boss Roberto Fiore.
Increase in new infections by 50 percent
Campania is experiencing a sharp rise in coronavirus infections.
2280 new cases were recorded on Friday - an increase of nearly 50 percent from the previous day.
On Thursday it was 1541.
This makes Campania one of the two regions with the most new infections in Italy.
Recently, there was only more in the northern Italian region of Lombardy, where there were 4916 new infections on Friday.
Because of the current data, it is necessary to stop "mobility between regions and municipalities", said De Luca.
With infections rising across Italy, not just Campania, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government is under increasing pressure to take stricter measures to contain the virus.
The official number of new infections with the corona virus across Italy was on Friday at the record high of 19,143.
This brings the total number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic to 484,869.
The number of deaths in connection with a Covid 19 disease rose by 91 to 37,059.
More than a thousand people are currently receiving intensive care.
The capital city administration in Rome has already announced the closing of popular meeting places on weekends in the evening to avoid crowds.
On Fridays and Saturdays from 9 p.m. to midnight, places such as Campo de 'Fiori, Piazza Trilussa, Piazza Madonna de' Monti and Via del Pigneto should remain closed.
Similar measures are already in place in Turin, Genoa and Palermo.
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