Italian taxi drivers who have been
protesting for days against deregulation and more recently the
Uber Files on Wednesday threw firecrackers and flares towards
police guarding the office of Premier Mario Draghi in central
Rome.
Police have cordoned off Palazzo Chigi, the Renaissance building
that houses the Italian premier's office, while taxi drivers
demonstrated in the nearby Via del Corso, shouting slogans
against Draghi and the government.
Drivers spontaneously stopped their vehicles across the country
Tuesday in a wildcat protest against the widespread allegedly
dishonest practices uncovered in the Uber Files probe.
The drivers have been protesting for weeks against article 10 of
the government's competition bill, whose deregulation they say
will open them up to unfair competition from web-based
ride-sharing services like Uber.
Last week the drivers staged a two-day strike that threatened to
turn nasty with bottle-throwing at the premier's office in Rome.
The Uber Files allegedly show how the ride-hailing start-up
begun by Travis Kalanick in San Francisco in 2010 became a
global behemoth by harnessing technology, working around laws,
and using aggressive lobbying tactics to curry favour with
governments during the period of its dramatic expansion.
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