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Coronavirus: Italy airs its anger over the new restrictions on another night of riots and looting

2020-10-27T14:48:09.921Z


From aggressive protesters to peaceful bar and restaurant owners came out to protest. The government promises aid for 6 billion euros.


Julio Algañaraz

10/27/2020 11:23 AM

  • Clarín.com

  • World

Updated 10/27/2020 11:24 AM

Throughout Italy, sectors damaged by the

national

curfew

and other semi-quarantine measures imposed by the government to contain the

runaway advance

of the coronavirus are protesting.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte met with merchants, owners of bars and restaurants, owners of gyms and swimming pools, as well as other affected sectors, assuring them that on November 15 they will be distributed

six billion euros

of aid, in addition to paying subsidies to employees who are left without work.

The scene has become gloomy and alarming due to the violence of some protests.

In Turin, a march down the central Roma avenue of less than a thousand

aggressive protesters

culminated in attacks on the most luxurious businesses, the smashing of bulletproof windows with cobblestones and the smooth and flat robbery of centers as frequented as

Gucci and Apple

, who were devastated.

Groups of ultras from the Torino and Juventus soccer clubs, protected by hoods, threw Molotov cocktails at the police, who responded with charges and tear gas.

Also far left and far right militants who shouted “Freedom!

Freedom ”against the decision to impose a curfew, participated in the devastation that encompassed dozens of businesses in the high-class commercial heart of Turin.

In Turin, a march down the central Roma Avenue of fewer than 1,000 aggressive protesters culminated in attacks on businesses.

Photo: ANSA

Twenty-eight people were arrested, 13 of whom were minors.

Two young Egyptians with bags that broke into Gucci stores were also arrested after struggling with the police.

Instead a march of

two thousand merchants

, owners of bars, restaurants and pizzerias affected by the night curfew, which lasts

until 5 a.m.,

was peaceful

.

One woman carried a large sign that proclaimed:

"We are dying

.

"

A couple of merchants with tears in their eyes raised another sign: "They starve us instead of the virus."

v 1.5

Coronavirus in Italy

Tap to explore the data

Source:

Johns Hopkins University

Infographic:

Clarín

In Milan there were several peaceful marches of those damaged by the restriction measures and against the curfew that prevents economic activity.

Traders are much

more aggressive and desperate

than in previous days "because if they decree a total quarantine, this time we will not survive, as we managed to do after the first wave that prevented us from working for 72 days, with great financial damage."

The demonstrations covered

many

small and medium-sized

cities

, in which there were no incidents.

In the Ministry of the Interior, from where the “anti-curfew” revolt was followed with growing alarm, the prefects and the police were instructed to respond “with maximum energy” to the violent and allow all legitimate and peaceful protests .

Look also

Coronavirus in the World: photos of life during the Covid-19 pandemic

In Rome there were a dozen peaceful demonstrations in the main squares of the capital and in front of the Palace of the Chamber of Deputies, located next to the palace seat of the government, which was prevented from reaching those protesting.

Taxi drivers also protested in several cities, but chose Naples as the main center of the demonstrations.

Hundreds of taxis lined up in front of the regional government headquarters.

"We can no longer live, because there is no more tourism and people do not get into our cars because

they have no money,

" protested a union leader.

"With the curfew and the total quarantine that seems to be upon us, we don't know what to do."

An attack that made an impression occurred at dawn on Monday in Rimini, the main seaside resort on the Adriatic Sea where the film director Federico Fellini was born.

Some fifty cars, mostly belonging to doctors, nurses and health personnel from the main Rimini hospital who were on duty, were severely damaged by unknown persons.

In nighttime protests there were far-right groups, such as Forza Nuova among the protesters, and barrabravas.

Photo: ANSA

Anonymous messages accused the doctors of "raising the alarm" by warning the public about the growing spread of the coronavirus.

The hospital, where there are many interned for Covid-19, is now under close police surveillance.

Also the

world of culture

protests against sanitary restrictions.

The world famous conductor Riccardo Muti, who is currently in charge of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, sent a letter to Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for the order to close the concert halls and theaters.

“This is a serious decision.

The impoverishment of the mind and spirit is dangerous and also damages the health of the body ”, he pointed out.

Muti and many celebrities from the entertainment world highlighted that all the studios recognize that the cinemas, theater and concerts in the peninsula "are among the safest places in the country, so we do not understand what is the logic of suspending activities" .

The film directors Marco Bellocchi, Nanni Moretti, PaoloTaviani, Gianni Amelio, Pupi Avati and Giuliano Montalto, among others, demanded that the closures of the auditoriums be left without effect.

Numerous intellectuals joined the letter.

If the three packages of restrictive measures that the Conte government announced in less than two weeks prove insufficient, the only sure way to slow down the spread of the virus in this second wave will be to apply

a rigid quarantine

, as happened on 10 March twenty days after the first phase of the pandemic began.

Protesters protests in Milan.

Photo: ANSA

That quarantine was remarkably successful because it immobilized most of the 60 million Italian inhabitants, at the cost of closing most of the industrial and commercial activities, preventing the reopening of schools (which happened only on September 14), minimize the public transport system and prevent people from moving out of their homes for no good reason.

The quarantine

lasted 72 days

and reduced the number of infected, hospitalized and deceased so much that a part of the scientists and doctors affirmed that the virus "has lost its virulence" and even found that "the epidemic has been defeated".

The majority, on the other hand, argued that the corona virus "is still there" and that it would return after the summer, as it did.

Conte's government

clearly

fears

imposing a total quarantine because it would relentlessly punish its economy, which is just recovering from the loss of 10% of national wealth that caused the isolation and immobility of the lockdown.

It is estimated that if a thorough quarantine is applied it will be renamed.

For example "selective lockdowns" and you will be given a certain period of one, two or three months.

Rome, correspondent

ap

Look also

Faced with the unstoppable advance of the coronavirus, Europe seeks to "save Christmas"

Coronavirus: Italy orders the closure of gyms, swimming pools and cinemas, and social protests erupt

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2020-10-27

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