Protests over COVID-19 policies in Italy

Catholic clergy in Italy took to posting video messages in response to the lockdown policies and the re-opening policies that have been slowly introduced in Italy as the pandemic infection rates have decreased. Giovanni D'Ercole, bishop of Ascoli Piceno in the Marche region, claimed in a video that the inability for religious institutions to hold services outside of funerals was like a dictatorship.[1] This also involved Pope Francis, that tried to pour oil on troubled waters in a sermon on Tuesday, in which he invited Christians to be obedient and to respect restrictions.[2]

Despite the prohibitions, the historical unemployed and the social centers of Naples took to the streets. Since 25 April, on the occasion of Liberation Day, banners were signed by the group of unemployed "7 November" asking for "mass buffers and universal income".[3]

An unauthorized demonstration, organized in particular by 'Marcia su Roma' and Casapound, in protest against the government, started on 30 May. Among them, some also wore the 'orange vests', many citizens from different areas of Italy with the slogans "Traitors. Give us back our freedom" and "The coronavirus is all a political, economic and social design because they want to sell us to China". About two hundred were present, with 70 those identified by the Rome Police Headquarters at the end of the day.[4]

On 20 June, in Piazza del Duomo in Milan, starting at 3:00 PM, the demonstration "Salviamo la Lombardia" was staged, the protest organized by numerous groups - including Democratic Medicine, Milan 2030, Arci and I sentinelli - which puts Lombardy president Attilio Fontana and his junta targeted for the work done during the Coronavirus emergency.[5]

On 23 October 2020, hundreds of people protested in Naples[6] in the coastal section of Mergellina, after stricter COVID-19 measures were imposed in the city and the whole region of Campania. The protesters clashed with police, wounding seven officers with smoke bombs, burning trash bins and chanting against the President of the region, Vincenzo De Luca.[7] Some people threw projectiles at police and two people were arrested.[8] Violent protests spread in the following days in several Italian cities, with protesters clashing with the police, smashing windows and looting shops; several enquires pointed out that these protests had been infiltrated by far-right and far-left movements (like Forza Nuova[9] and the social centres), skinhead groups and football hooligans.[10]

On 13 November, Campania becomes a red zone and protests start in Naples. At the intersection between via Cesario Console and via Nazario Sauro, about two hundred demonstrators from the market sector blocked car traffic, protesting in the middle of the road with a banner "We will never stop".[11]

Many people all over Italy started protesting on 15 December to make the celebration of Christmas possible.

The protest of the white aprons of shopkeepers and restaurateurs, called by Fipe-Confcommercio and to which Fiepet - Confesercenti and the Association of Trentino public establishments have also joined Trento. About 250 entrepreneurs met this morning at the former Zuffo car park with their cars and then moved in procession to the Government Commissariat, where after a brief moment of confrontation with the prefect Sandro Lombardi, they symbolically handed over their aprons as a sign of protest for the stalemate created, with restricted and penalizing hours, requirements and prohibitions.[12]