Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on
Sunday condemned a violent demonstration the previous night in
Rome organized by activists protesting against the death of Ramy
Elgaml, the 19-year-old Italo-Egyptian Milan resident who died
on November 24 in a scooter accident while being chased by the
Carabinieri police.
"Amid paper bombs, tear gas and assaults, last night in Rome we
saw the umpteenth, ignoble episode of disorder and chaos by the
usual rioters who took to the streets not to demonstrate for a
cause, but purely in a spirit of revenge", the prime minister
wrote on social media.
"It's not possible to use a tragedy to legitimize violence.
"Our solidarity goes to the police, together with well wishes to
the officers who were wounded.
"We are on your side", wrote Meloni.
Demonstrators and the police clashed in the Roman neighbourhood
of San Lorenzo during a protest organized on Saturday night in
memory of Ramy amid a probe into whether
Carabinieri security officials chasing the scooter carrying him
and driver Fares Bouzidi, a 22-year-old Tunisian, intentionally
rammed into the motorbike.
The accident occurred at the end of an eight-km-long chase that
ended at the Corvetto district, which officers said started
after the pair drove through a roadblock.
The officer behind the wheel of the car directly following the
scooter and Bouzidi are being probed on involuntary road murder
charges while the other Carabinieri officials involved in the
chase are being investigated over potentially false claims
regarding the accident and for allegedly erasing a witness's
video.
In Rome on Saturday night, after protesters threw paper bombs
and tear gas against police, vehicles, the officers
baton-charged demonstrators at Piazza Sanniti in an action
investigative sources said was ordered by Rome's police chief
"to protect the safety of police officers".
Overall, eight policemen were wounded in Rome.
Other demonstrations were organized in cities including Milan,
Bologna and Brescia by the Italian Antiracist Coordination
"Justice and Truth" to protest against Ramy's death.
In Bologna, the local synagogue was vandalized in the night
between Saturday and Sunday, along with other areas of the city
centre following the march for Ramy, with Mayor Matteo Lepore
expressing solidarity to the Jewish community.
"Despite the statements made online by those who promoted this
violent gathering, there was no political demonstration, only
devastation", said Lepore, a member of the Centre-left
Democratic Party (PD).
The mayor also urged "everyone to keep calm, institutions will
be united in dealing with what happened".
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi slammed the violent protests
in a note, saying "such aggressions must be condemned by
everybody, without indecision or ostensible distinctions".
The Senate and Lower House speakers also spoke out against the
violence.
Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa on Sunday expressed "firm and
total condemnation for the very grave episodes of violence
reported in Rome and Bologna, where several criminals threw
paper bombs against a precinct, attacked law enforcement
officials and assaulted a synagogue.
"No justification, no tolerance is admissible for such episodes,
which unfortunately continue to occur with concerning
regularity", he noted, expressing solidarity to the mayors of
Rome and Bologna, law enforcement officials and the Jewish
community.
Lower House Speaker Lorenzo Fontana also voiced outrage for the
"violent methods of those exploiting demonstrations to
legitimize aggressive actions - intolerable behaviour that must
be firmly condemned", also expressing solidarity to the Jewish
community in Bologna and the injured officers.
Police detained two people in Bologna who were reported to the
judicial authorities and then released on charges of resistance
and aggravated assault against public officers.
Earlier this week, a protest in Turin organized by far-left
collective groups also turned violent and police used tear gas
to disperse demonstrators.
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