A number of palm trees in Milan's central Piazza Duomo were set alight on early Sunday amid a dispute after global coffee giant Starbucks planted them on Tuesday in the city's famous Piazza Duomo.
One suffered extensive damage to its trunk.
Starbucks plans to open its first Italian retail point in
Milan in 2018 and planted the trees as part of a contract it won
to restyle the green spaces surrounding the equestrian monument
to Victor Emmanuel II for the next three years.
The palm trees had set off an outcry from the city
government's centre-right factions and a protest was staged on
Saturday by the radical rightwing movement Casapound and the
anti-immigrant Northern League party, who railed against the
"Africanization" of the historic piazza.
Mayor Giuseppe Sala had said that he wasn't "very
enthusiastic about the idea" but pointed out that there was a
historic precedent for the palm trees going back to the late
1800s in the same square and that, as such, the city's
superintendency had approved the plan, which also includes
banana plants.
A bronze statue of a palm tree marks the exact center of the
city in the St Sepulcher Church.
Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, nonetheless, had
commented by saying that the planting of the trees was "madness.
Now we only need sand and camels for the illegal immigrants to
feel at home".
No alarm was raised during the night and only in the morning
did the local police go to the scene, after a photo was
circulated on Facebook.
The authorities are checking surveillance camera footage.
Salvini added that "I do not like it that a multinational
comes and decides what to do in one of the most beautiful
squares in the world. It is as if McDonald's were to deck out St
Mark's Square and fill it with French fries everywhere, or (as
if it were to do the same to) the Colosseum."
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