Love & loathing for EU on Rome street
Thousands march in London
ROME, March 26, (RTRS): Love it or loathe it, there was a European Union protest to suit all tastes on Saturday in the Italian capital.
Federalists, nationalists, populists, unionists and anarchists headed to one of six rallies and demonstrations called to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the signing of the founding treaty of the European Union.
While 27 EU leaders staged a solemn celebration on the ancient Capitoline Hill, thousands of ordinary people took to the streets, some waving the blue and gold flag of the crisis-plagued Union, others brandishing angry placards.
“The others are very much against Europe and are very critical. We instead are for a Europe in the spirit of the original treaty. A free, democratic Europe,” said Lucio Pagani, a white-haired unionist walking in warm spring sunshine.
Some 30,000 demonstrators were expected to take part in the various gatherings, with some 5,000 police and security forces on call in case of violence.
“Keep calm and love Europe,” read one banner at a pro-European march. “My life would suck without Europe,” read another.
A very different message was heard in a university hall in the heart of Rome, where the rightist Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party staged a meeting to denounce the EU and to demand radical reform. “The EU experience is over for us. It needs to be shut down and we need to start a new path together that is a confederation of free and sovereign nations,” said party chief Giorgia Meloni.
Italy used to be one of the most pro-EU states in Europe, but support has waned, with many people angry about the euro currency, which they hold responsible for the country’s marked economic decline since its launch in 1999.
Some people are also upset over the influx of more than half a million immigrants since 2014 and accuse the EU of doing little or nothing to help Italy deal with the newcomers.
Posters
“Too many migrants? It is their fault,” said posters plastered around the city showing the faces of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker.
Meanwhile, thousands of people marched through London on Saturday to protest against Britain leaving the European Union, just four days before Prime Minister Theresa May launches the start of the formal divorce process from the bloc it joined 44 years ago. The Unite for Europe march was due to end with a rally in Parliament Square, scene of this week’s attack by British-born Islam convert Khalid Masood in which four people died.
Marchers observed a minute’s silence in memory of the victims at the start of the demonstration.
In bright sunshine, they waved EU flags and banners with slogans like “So what’s the Plan” and “Stop Brexit” as they made their way to parliament.
One banner from a marcher in Hastings on the south coast — scene of England’s epoch-defining defeat to William, Duke of Normandy — read: “Hastings, in Europe since 1066.”
Another simply said “Happy Birthday EU” in a reference to this weekend’s 60th anniversary of the bloc’s founding, currently being commemorated in Rome.
Joss Dennis was one of three coach loads of protesters who had travelled from Bristol in western England, which voted 62 percent to stay in the EU in last June’s referendum compared with the national 52-48 percent vote to leave.