Far-right groups denounced over violence in Italy
Left-leaning Italian lawmakers and politicians on Sunday called for measures to outlaw pro-fascism groups, a day after antivaccine protesters, incited by leaders of the extreme right, stormed a union office in Rome in an assault that evoked comparisons to the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Twelve protesters were either detained or arrested, authorities said Sunday, including Giuliano Castellino, leader of the extreme-right political party Forza Nuova. Some 10,000 demonstrators had turned out Saturday to protest a government-imposed requirement that workers must certify they have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, recovered from the illness in recent months or recently tested negative in order to access workplaces. The requirement takes effect this Friday.
Castellino, who, due to past violence, has been banned from demonstrations in Rome, was allegedly one of the Forza Nuova proponents who exhorted supporters to storm the national headquarters of the CGIL labor confederation.
Scores of demonstrators used sticks, metal bars and rolled-up Italian flags to force their way inside. Rooms were trashed, with furniture overturned.
Later, hundreds of demonstrators clashed with police as they tried to reach the square outside Chigi Palace, home to the premier’s office and near the Italian parliament.
“The assault on CGIL headquarters and the attempt to repeat that at Chigi Palace leaves one shocked and recalls the devastating break-in at the Capitol” in Washington, wrote l’eco del sud.it, a southern Italian news website.
Among those calling for the outlawing of fascism-sympathizing political groups was Giuseppe Conte, the former premier and new leader of the populist 5-Star Movement.