Nicolas Schmit, the European
Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights and the Party of
European Socialists' (PES) candidate to be the next Commission
President, on Saturday intervened in a row about police using
batons on young people in Pisa eight days ago.
The clashes between riot police and demonstrators at a
pro-Palestinian protest left five people, including two minors,
needing emergency medical treatment.
Images of some police in Pisa repeatedly hitting students over
the head shocked many Italians amid reports of clashes between
police and demonstrators at other pro-Palestinian protests in
other cities on the same day.
They prompted a rare rebuke from President Sergio Mattarella,
who said that "truncheons fail young people".
However, Premier Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the right-wing
Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, said this week that it is
"dangerous" to withdraw institutional support for the police.
"As (seen) in Pisa, the freedom of our young people to
demonstrate in safety is being repressed," Schmit said at the
PES election congress in Rome.
"I am with President Mattarella. Using batons on young people is
a failure. We must stand together against the extreme right".
Thousands of people are expected to turn out for a demonstration
in Pisa on Saturday to call for the resignation of the local
police commissioner following the clashes.
Marches in support of the Palestinian cause and against
heavy-handed policing are also taking place in Florence, Trieste
and Rome.
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