Premier Giorgia Meloni's silence overcontroversial baton charges by police against peacefulpro-Palestinian student protesters in Pisa Friday shows she has no "sense of the institutions," opposition centre-leftDemocratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein said Sunday.
"I would like the center right exponents to break their silence on the events in Pisa," said the PD chief.
"And that Giorgia Meloni should do so above all, she who is demonstrating that she has no sense of the institutions.
"Let her stop hiding behind her ministers and come to report directly to parliament on what happened."
She continued: "It's time for the prime minister to say something about what happened and about the management of public order on the occasion of the very serious episodes that happened in Pisa, with the baton-charging of students by police but also other similar episodes that occurred previously.
"It's not the first time, sadly, that we are witnessing actions of this kind".
Schlein said that President Sergio Mattarella had "saideverything that needed to be said" about the allegedly heavy-handed policing in stating Saturday that "the use of truncheonsdoes not confer authoritativeness".
Another opposition leader, Green Europe co-spokesman AngeloBonelli, said: "Giorgia Meloni continues in her silenceregarding the use of truncheons by the police on the students in Pisa, even after the stance adopted by President SergioMattarella (who chided the policing, ed.).
"But she expresses herself through the words of the coordinator of (her rightwing Brothers of Italy party) FdI, GiovanniDonzelli, who attacks the demonstrators instead of listening to these asking for more wisdom and dialogue as an alternative to the use of batons, as suggested by the president's appeal".
As well as the baton charges in Pisa, of which videos surfaces showing officers repeatedly hitting students on the head, there also police baton charges on a similar demo in Florence Friday.
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