Pressure mounts on Meloni’s gov’t as Gaza protests paralyse Italy
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across Italy as part of a general strike in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla that was intercepted by Israel this week while trying to bring aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
More than two million people attended Friday’s protests after the strike was called by a number of trade unions “in defence of the flotilla”, which was carrying a total of 40 Italians, and to “stop the genocide”, the CGIL (Italian General Confederation of Labour) wrote on X.
Turin-based daily La Stampa reported that the mobilisation involved the public and private sectors, “halting rail, air, metro, and bus transport, healthcare and schools. Among the many acts of dissent, protesters blocked highways near Pisa, Pescara, Bologna and Milan and shut down access to the port of Livorno, said the newspaper.
Police told the news agency AFP that more than 80,000 people demonstrated in Milan, where a sea of people clapped and waved the Palestinian flag as they made their way through the streets, carrying a massive banner reading: “Free Palestine, Stop the War Machine”.
“This is not just any strike. We’re here today to defend brotherhood among individuals, among peoples, to put humanity back at the centre, to say no to genocide, to a policy of rearmament,” CGIL leader Maurizio Landini was cited by the Reuters news agency as saying.
Reporting from Rome, Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic said the turnout across the country included “so many people from various walks of life. You’ve got students, you’ve got retired people, many people with their small children also coming out”.
Major turnout expected in Rome on Saturday
Massive protests are planned for tomorrow in Rome, where the CGIL reported 300,000 participants on Friday, with crowds set to depart from the town square, Piazzale Ostiense, at 2:30pm (12:30 GMT).
“Today, we were hundreds of thousands. Tomorrow for Palestine we must be a million,” said Maya Issa, leader of the Palestinian Student Movement, cited by Rome-based daily La Repubblica.
Andrea Dessi, an assistant professor of international relations and global politics at the American University of Rome, told Al Jazeera that the Italian government had been “caught on its back foot”.
While Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni this week announced Italy would recognise a Palestinian state if Israeli captives were freed and Hamas was shut out of future governance, protesters believed Meloni’s support for a Palestinian state should have been unconditional, Dessi said.
Post a Comment