Representatives of the Italian center-right opposition staged a procession along one of the major streets of Rome with demands to increase state support for the population amid a recession due to the coronavirus epidemic and to hold early elections in the country.
As it is reported, a protest rally against the government’s measures took place on the national holiday of the republic and, contrary to what was stated, did not meet the original plans for the number and measures of social distance.
“We have come here to solve the problems of numerous Italians that the government has forgotten about. While the funds from the European Union have not yet arrived, families and enterprises remain in despair”, – the leader of the Liga party, former Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, told the reporters.
Instead with allies from the Forward Italy and Brothers of Italy parties, he led a column of demonstrators carrying an Italian tricolor that spanned the entire width of the street. According to the organizers of the action, the length of the canvas reached 500 meters.
The procession, which was accompanied by the singing of the Italian anthem and the chant “Elections! Elections!”, began with the large Piazza del Popolo and ended at one of the intersections of the Via del Corso shopping center. There, for Salvini, leader of the Brothers of Italy, Georgi Meloni, and vice president of Forward, Italy, Antonio Tayani, a platform for press statements was organized.
Despite the fact that opposition leaders planned to limit the number of protesters to three hundred people and promised to ensure that the distance between them was maintained, in practice the event turned into a march of the crowd without any protective measures. The center-right leaders readily communicated with activists, took selfies with them, and for the first in a long time, journalists covering the rally felt like a stampede.