2024-02-29 03:01:00
From Rome
The result of the elections on the island of Sardinia, in which a representative of the center left won, and the recent beatings of the police once morest young people in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Florence and Pisa, are a warning light for the government from the right-wing Giorgia Meloni.
In the Sardinian elections, held on February 25, the president of the region (equivalent to the governor of the Argentine provinces) was voted and the former vice minister of Economic Development during the government of Mario Draghi (2021-2022) was elected. Alessandra Todde, member of the Five Star Movement (M5S) and current national representative. Her election is “the response of the Sardinians to the beatings” of Florence and Pisa, commented the new president.
Results
The results obtained so far speak of a very small difference between the two, 45.4% of the votes in favor of Todde and 45% in favor of the candidate of Fratelli d’Italia (FDI, Meloni’s party), Paolo Truzzu . There would be just under 3,000 votes difference between the two. But apparently in some sections it took a long time to deliver the results and a recount of the votes will have to be done.
The new president of the Sardinia Region is also the first woman to hold that position in the history of the island. Her party allied itself with the Democratic Party (center-left) for this campaign and to congratulate her, the secretary of the PD, Elly Schlein, flew to Sardinia with the leader of the M5S and former prime minister of Italy, Giuseppe Conte. “The wind is changing,” commented Schlein, referring to the electoral result following five years of center-right government in Sardinia. “I will be the first female president of the Region. A historical page opens for Sardinia. “I feel happy and proud,” Todde said.
The M5S and PD alliance, which existed a few years ago at the national level, fell apart over time. But the results of these elections have made it clear that the alliance is useful to combat the right. “Sardinia indicates that the path started in 2019 (of alliance between center-left parties) was the right path. And now that path is taken with conviction and generosity,” commented former PD secretary, Dario Franceschini.
For the respected PD politician and president of the Emilia-Romanian Region, Stefano Bonaccini, the elections in Sardinia “are the first crack that opens on the right. These elections have shown that the right can be defeated, both in the upcoming elections in the Abruzzo Region and in the national political elections. But for that we have to put aside selfishness and look for an alternative program for the country. We must prepare,” he declared on Sky Tg24’s “Stars” television program.
The demonstrations
In the demonstrations that took place on Friday, February 23 in Florence and Pisa in favor of Palestine, most of the participants were young people, many of them university and high school students but also trade unionists and other people opposed to the massacres in Palestine.
In some videos released by young people, you can see the police, with helmets and sticks, hitting the protesters hard. Local hospitals in Florence registered regarding 18 injured, of which 10 were minors. They also included a 21-year-old girl whose nose was broken and she also received a wound under one eye.
The protesters in Florence, regarding 500 young people, had started from the Piazza Santisima Annunziara to reach the American consulate through the center. When the boys approached the consulate, the caning began.
In Pisa (northwest of Florence, a city where there are very prestigious universities) the protesters were stopped while trying to reach the University area that had been blocked, and that’s when the caning began.
The young people wanted to express their disagreement with the position of the Meloni government – which continues to support Israel – regarding the “genocide that is being carried out in Palestine” and asked to “block any agreement with Israel and with Israeli companies that produce weapons used in Palestine.” ” some students explained.
Around 7 p.m. local time, another demonstration took place in Pisa but this time there was no police repression. Protest marches once morest repression and for Palestine were also held in other cities such as Rome, Catania (Sicily) and Bologna, among others.
Acts of repression like these have not been seen in Italy for some decades. For this reason, both university and high school professors and politicians harshly criticized the government, expressing their disagreement with the aggressive attitude of the police.
“Enough with the caning once morest the students. The images of Pisa are unacceptable,” Schlein said that with other deputies he presented a parliamentary interrogation so that the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, would give explanations for what happened. For Conte, the episodes in Florence and Pisa are “worrying images, not worthy of our country.”
The president of Italy Sergio Mattarella also expressed his deep disagreement with what happened. “The freedom to publicly express opinions must be respected,” said the president, also highlighting that the use of canes once morest young people “is the expression of a great failure” regarding them.
The reactions of the right
Government allies downplayed the student repression. “What happened in Sardinia was just an incident. In the next elections in Abruzzo I will win,” declared to the press the current president of the Abruzzo Region, Marco Marsiglio, of the right-wing Fratelli d’Italia – the party of Prime Minister Meloni -, who will run as a candidate once more in the March 10 elections.
Apparently, the result of the elections in Sardinia has also triggered an internal controversy in the government, between Fratelli d’Italia and Matteo Salvini’s League, which had proposed to represent the current president of the region, Christian Solinas, an ally of the League. . While Meloni insisted on Truzzu’s candidacy.
After the results in Sardinia were known, the prime minister and the leaders of the other two government parties, Salvini of the League and Antonio Tajani of Forza Italia, signed a joint statement admitting that if they made any mistakes, that should serve to prevent them from never be repeated once more in the country’s next election days.
And regarding the repression of pro-Palestine demonstrations, the vice president of the Council of Ministers, Salvini, did not want to comment on President Mattarella’s phrase but clarified that “whoever attacks the police is a criminal.” And that the government “is on the side of the police and the carabinieri,” which gave a fairly clear image of the government’s position.
Not far from that concept was the comment made this Wednesday by Prime Minister Meloni. “It is very dangerous to remove the support of the institutions from those who risk their safety every day to defend ours. “It is a game that can become very dangerous,” she told Tg2 television. Meloni’s comment arose on the occasion of the replacement of a Florence police leader who was transferred to other functions, although it was officially said that it had nothing to do with what had happened in the demonstrations. Minister Piantedosi and the special police services, Digos, are investigating what happened in Pisa and Florence and should inform Parliament.
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