The response of the police to demonstrations in support of the Palestinians in Gaza continues to be the subject of a virulent debate in Italy, after police charges against gatherings of students and high school students which left several injured on Friday February 23, in Pisa and Florence. On Saturday, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, guarantor of the democratic values of the Constitution, even issued a rare and clear call to order against the executive dominated by the far right of the president of the council Giorgia Meloni, whose party, Fratelli d’Italia, defended the police.
A press release from the presidency, published the same day, indicated that Mr. Mattarella had spoken with the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi (League, far right), to remind him that “the authority of law enforcement is not measured by batons, but by their ability to ensure security while protecting the freedom to publicly express one’s opinions.” “With young people, he addedthe batons are the expression of failure. » More than two decades after the events, Italy retains vivid memories of the riots against the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001, the repression of which left one dead and hundreds injured among the demonstrators.
Filmed during the demonstrations organized on Saturday in the two Tuscan cities, videos showed agents using their batons liberally and keeping very young demonstrators on the ground, some with bloody faces. In a country where police violence is not a usual aspect of maintaining order, these images have widely shocked, provoking strong public reactions while the echo of the ongoing massacres in Gaza has already caused tensions in the media and in the Italian streets.
In Naples, on February 13, a gathering of limited scope in support of the Palestinians had already been the subject of a police charge, leaving five demonstrators and five others injured among the police. She stood in front of the local headquarters of RAI, the public broadcaster, targeted by protesters after the host of an entertainment program read on air an official statement of solidarity with the Israeli people. regarding the massacres of October 7, 2023.
Management thus wanted to counterbalance the call for “stop the genocide” in Gaza launched the day before by a singer on RAI. The opposition had already expressed alarm about the methods then used by the police. But after Friday’s demonstrations, criticism of the actions of the police increased, going beyond the scope of ordinary political controversy.
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