Italians nationwide protest violence against women

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 25 - Hundreds of thousands of people took part in protests across Italy on Saturday for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, amid widespread public anger and dismay over the murder of 22-year-old Giulia Cecchettin by her ex boyfriend Filippo Turetta on November 11, the latest of a long string of femicides and other acts of gender-based violence in the country.
    Marches took place all over the country to demand an end to the violence and abuse, with the demos in Milan, Rome, Messina and Naples attracting especially big crowds.
    "We want to be alive. No more patriarchy" chanted the protesters, many wearing purple scarves, at the demo at Rome's Circus Maximus, which organizers said at least half a million people took part in.
    "Dramatic news stories have shaken the country's conscience," said President Mattarella in his message for the day.
    "A human society that aspires to be civilized cannot accept, cannot endure, this string of attacks on women and murders.
    "The incurable grief and pain of the wounded families and communities is the heartbreak of all of us.
    "When we are faced with a murdered woman, the broken life of a young person, a person humiliated verbally or in everyday gestures in the family, in the workplace, at school, we (should) feel that behind this violence lies the failure of a society, which fails to promote real equal relations between women and men".
    European Parliament President Roberta Metsola referred to Cecchettin's case and that of other femicide victims in a video message on Saturday. "Giulia, Ashling, Bernice, Paulina and tens of thousands other women in Europe and beyond," Metsola "Femicide victims. Daughters, sisters, mothers.
    "We can and must act to protect women. With determination, training, awareness campaigns, and ambitious laws.
    "There are no excuses, it is already too late, we must defend women".
    On Friday Premier Giorgia Meloni renewed her pledge to continue to fight violence against women, describing it as an "intolerable phenomenon that must be fought at 360 degrees.
    "I am proud of the law that was voted by all the political forces (in parliament)," continued Meloni, referring to the new anti-violence and anti-stalking norms approved definitively by the Senate on Wednesday.
    "There are areas where sharing can make a difference," she added.
    The government also had the number of the 1522 helpline projected onto the facade of the premier's office at Palazzo Chigi in Rome.
    Pope Francis called for action to prevent gender-based violence too.
    "Violence against women is a poisonous weed that plagues our society and must be pulled up from its roots," the pontiff said in a post on X.
    "These roots grow in the soil of prejudice and of injustice; they must be countered with educational action that places the person, with his or her dignity, at the centre".
    Labour Minister Marina Elvira Calderone said that women who have been put on a special programme of 'protection' after being the victims of gender-based violence will be able to access a new 'inclusion' benefit from the start of next year.
    In a video for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Calderone said the support will last for 18 months and will be renewable. The victims of the violence will also be able to get help paying rent, she said. Calderone said there will be tax breaks for employers who hire women on this programme too.
    Turetta was taken to Verona's Montorio prison on Saturday after being extradited from Germany.
    The man, who was arrested near Leipzig in Germany last Sunday after more than a week on the run, was escorted to the jail by Carabinieri police being handed over by the German authorities in Frankfurt and flown to Venice.
    He will have his own cell in Verona and be under 24 hour surveillance for his own protection and to prevent self-harm, judicial sources have said.
    Turetta is currently being probed for kidnapping and voluntary homicide, but this could change to premeditated murder.
    Investigative sources have said that a few days before the murder, the suspect bought adhesive tape online that could be compatible with the piece of adhesive tape found in the industrial area of Fossò near Venice where Cecchettin suffered the second stage of the fatal attack.
    Investigators are also reportedly considering charging him with the crime of concealing the corpse. Cecchettin's body was found a week ago in a gorge between Lake Barcis and Piancavallo in the Friuli province of Pordenone. (ANSA).