They had warned it for days and materialized it just after Israel began to address the ships of the Global Sumud Flotilla on Wednesday night. The news has overturned thousands of people in the streets of Italy and the protests are increasing in an environment of growing civil disobedience. In turn, the CGIL unions – the country's principal – and USB have summoned a strike for Friday facing the Giorgia Meloni government in an escalation that has forced the Executive to react.
Under the motto 'Let's block everything', the first protests after the Israeli approach were spontaneous. More than a hundred concentrations have traveled cities from north to south of the country, from Rome, Naples, Milan, Bologna, Turin and Genoa. All this shows how the discomfort for the massacres in the undian strip increasingly to public opinion and cracks the gap with the Meloni coalition, one of the European leaders that these two years was of the most warm in their criticisms and convictions to Israel.
“The response in the street is being very wide compared to recent years. The flotilla has managed to awaken the awareness of many people,” said Lucca Ricci, a tourist guide of Rome, involved in the movements by Palestine of the city and who also went out to protest in the last hours.
Meloni has woven privileged ties with Trump, and must follow its orientation to maintain them, but Italian society is increasingly sensitive to Gaza ”
Giancarlo Liberati
— Human Rights Specialized Lawyer
Italy is one of the countries where the popular reaction to the approach to the flotilla has had greater dimension. In the sea caravan there were more than 40 Italians. The outcome of this convoy has ended up lighting the streets. Given this, Meloni and other positions of his government launch warnings to prevent the country from stopping. “Stopping everything is no longer useful,” warned the head of Defense, Guido Crosetto. The Minister of Transportation, Ultra Matteo Salvini, went further and questioned the legality of the strike for not summoning with enough notice. Given this, he said he values applying the premiummeasure that includes the power to limit or suspend work unemployment. “I will do my best to ensure that Tomorrow Italy does not fall into chaos,” said the leader of the ultra -rightist League on his X account Thursday.
“I expected that, given such an important issue as Gaza, the unions would not summon the strike on Friday. Extend the weekend and the revolution is not something that married,” said the prime minister, hinting at the strikers who do not want to work.
However, the executive warnings have failed to stop mobilizations and unions, social movements, student groups and entities linked to the Palestinian cause heat engines for the strike. Among many other marches, at least 10,000 people left on Wednesday night through the streets of the center of the Italian capital, where another mobilization was convened on Friday before the Colosseum. Rome will also be a nerve point of another national march convened on Saturday, where groups from all over Italy are expected to demand the rupture of relations with Israel.
Beyond Rome, the marches occur in very varied places. In Genoa, the dockers – which in these times tried to prevent the passage through Italy from Armas to Israel – blocked access to the port. In Turin, protesters cut roads and They agreed to the airport enclosureand from Wednesday night it was tried to break into trains stations from several cities. On the same day the mobilized temporarily cut a road at the Central Station of Naples and this Thursday student groups were blocked by the police when they tried to enter the Bologna station. In this city there were also protests before the Government Prefecture, and marches were also held on the island of Sardinia.
Among the groups that are organized with the greatest activity are students, who have carried out actions and have occupied faculties of universities in Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin or Bologna. “Let's paralyze the university, all eyes in the flotilla,” is the university slogan. Likewise, the health personnel of more than 240 Italian hospitals have organized this Thursday a flashmob with torches and candles to show their solidarity with Gaza and the Palestinian health workers.
According to local media, in the strike convened for this Friday, minimum services will be provided, but when the main union of the country is, an important monitoring and interruptions in services such as public transport are expected. The restrictions will be felt from Thursday night. Until today, the CGIL did mobilize and made short -term work strikes by Palestine, but had not dared to call a general strike. As analysts coincide, the group was pressed to the streets, while it was also conditioned by the work strike by Gaza organized by the USB union on September 22, already very busy.
For Sara Cimmino, one of the many activists mobilized these days, all this is a sample of the “total success” of the flotilla. As highlighted, the initiative “achieved millions of people in Italy to be noticed in Gaza”, and pressed Meloni for his shy posture towards Israel's massacres. “It was evidenced how the Italian government is an accomplice of the genocide, and how is a slave to the will of the United States and Israel,” says this activist resident in Rome who also plans to protest these next days.
The stir was also noticed on Thursday at the institutional level. The Chamber of Deputies deliberated on Thursday two motions proposed by the majority of government, one of them on the Peace Plan for Gaza proposed by Donald Trump and another around the proposal for the recognition of the Palestinian State proposed by Meloni, conditioned on the liberation of Israeli hostages still captive in the strip and the resignation of Hamas to any aspiration to power. In the Chamber, the leader of the opposition formation and center -left Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, criticized the role of the government before the flotilla, demanded to “listen to the voice that rises” from the streets and asked that the protests not be criminalized.
It was evidenced how the Italian government is an accomplice of the genocide, and how is a slave to the will of the United States and Israel
Sara Cimmino
— Palestine activist
The US strategic ally of Donald Trump and Israel, Meloni is one of the European leaders who in the last two years has been more cautious and equidistant against Israel. He ranged from full support to Israel and criticism for his offensive, which sees “disproportionate.” In recent weeks he has hardened his positions. Until now, it has not described what happened in Gaza as a genocide and has been reluctant to impose sanctions against Israel. In turn, aligned with the US, it has not joined the recognition of the Palestinian State of France, the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries of recent weeks.
“It is shameful that this government does not adopt a firmer position against Israel,” he regrets Eldiario.es Giancarlo Liberati, a lawyer specialized in human rights. According to Liberati, Meloni has not wanted to place himself against the Jewish state so as not to lose his ideological links with the right of Benjamín Netanyahu and the US administration. “He has woven privileged ties with Trump, and must follow his orientation to maintain them, but Italian society is increasingly sensitive to Gaza,” he warned.
The discomfort, different analysts coincide, is transversal, even among Meloni voters. According to a recent survey of the Italian Youtrend group, 63% of Italians believe that Israel commits a genocide in Gaza, 64% indicates that “systematically oppresses and discriminates the Palestinian people”, and 65% sees their “disproportionate” offensive. “Netanyahu and Trump are key in this ultra -right -wing. elDiario.es Filippo Miaglia, vice president of Arci, promoter of culture and civil rights in Italy, an increasingly mobilized country by Palestine.