Train station protests fizzle in Italy as COVID passes start
ROME — Police outnumbered demonstrators at several of Italy’s main train stations as COVID-19 vaccination or tests became mandatory on Wednesday for long-distance travel within the country. Threats by opponents of the rule to block railroad tracks fizzled.
On the eve of the requirement’s taking effect, Premier Mario Draghi’s government had vowed to crack down on demonstrators who had called for their ranks to occupy tracks at around 50 stations to protest the measure, which, they say, impinges on their freedom of movement.
In Rome’s heavily used Tiburtina station, only four protesters showed up, while in Milan, the nation’s business capital, demonstrators numbered about 20. In Naples, only a handful of protesters turned out.
Compared with the several hundred demonstrators who have turned out in dozens of protests around the country earlier this summer, Wednesday’s turnout was paltry.
Travellers need a Green Pass to board domestic flights and inter-regional trains and buses and some ferries. Local transit is exempt.
In a bid to rein in the transmission of infections, mainly driven by the Delta variant, as Italians returned from summer vacations, the government announced weeks ago that, starting on Sept. 1, passengers must carry certification that they have had at least one vaccine dose more than 15 days prior, tested negative in the past 48 hours or recovered from COVID-19 in the previous six months. Some ferries are exempt, such as those used daily by commuters between Sicily and the southern tip of the mainland in Calabria.
This summer, Green Passes became mandatory for dining indoors at restaurants, accessing gyms or attending crowded events like concerts.
On the eve of the transportation rule taking effect, Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese pledged that there would be no tolerance for law breakers on the tracks or any violence.
“No illegal acts will be permitted in protest initiatives at train stations,” said the minister. A heavy police presence was deployed on Wednesday.
Militants of an extreme-right group, New Force, as well as some members of extreme-left organizations, have participated in previous Green Pass protests.
Several recent anti-Green Pass rallies, including in Rome and Milan, turned violent. Last month, police rescued a state television journalist after a protester started yanking her by her hair, and a newspaper reporter was punched repeatedly in the face.