Reportage
Italians spent Saturday in the streets against the ‘Fear Bill’
On Saturday, thousands of people demonstrated to remember Valerio Verbano and to fight against the Security Bill.
There was one particular moment that makes it clear that the annual demonstration in memory of Valerio Verbano, a Roman militant of the autonomous collectives murdered on Feb. 22, 1980 in front of his parents by three neo-fascists, is not just a commemoration event but a real passing of the baton. It is when the middle school boys and girls join together with everyone else. Their own march mingles with the rally held in front of Valerio's headstone. At that point, one can see the different generations walk together through the streets of Montesacro and Tufello. It is the moment when a promise about the near future is renewed, and the daily battles are tackled once more with renewed vigor.
On Saturday, thousands of people demonstrated to remember Valerio Verbano and to fight against the Security Bill. A young activist from the truck at the head of the procession read out the words written by the girlfriend of Ramy Elgaml, the 19-year-old Egyptian-born young man who died three months ago after a chase and intentional crash by the carabinieri in Milan's Corvetto neighborhood. The battle for truth for Ramy has become part of the struggle against the emergency and securitarian measures that threaten the right to dissent and criminalize the poorest.
Meanwhile, in Milan, Ramy's hometown, thousands of people from different generations were also demonstrating against the Security Bill. The long procession started from Piazza 24 Maggio towards Piazza Lodi, chanting slogans against the “red zones” pushed by the Interior Ministry to limit rights and further confine the right to be present in the city for those who live in the suburbs or could be considered – with ample discretion – as threats to decorum. People also took to the streets in Bologna: from Piazza XX Settembre, the procession against the “Fear Bill,” attended by thousands of people and social centers, collectives, unions and NGOs, headed towards Piazza Maggiore.
In Naples, from Piazza Garibaldi to Piazza del Plebiscito, marchers bore the flags of the CGIL, FIOM, COBAS unions, the Communist Refoundation party, the Mediterranea NGO, the unemployed people's movements and the Scampia committees, which denounced the “Caivano model”: “With these regulations, a student or worker who demonstrates for the right to study or for the protection of their job risks up to two years in prison,” said CGIL Campania regional secretary Nicola Ricci. “It is an issue that concerns the preservation of democracy: there must still be a guarantee of being able to dissent in this country.”
In Genoa, a similarly diverse crowd gathered in front of the prefecture to protest “a wrong and dangerous measure that limits the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Constitution and affects the rights to strike, demonstrate and dissent without addressing the real problems of the country … Security is not built with repression, but with decent work, with national contracts that provide adequate wages, and with efficient public services that are accessible to all,” says the local network against the Bill. "The government must withdraw this measure, which increases inequality and restricts rights instead of focusing on the real emergencies: work, health, education and social justice.” In Venice, the protesters met in front of the train station, identified as a possible “red zone,” also on the occasion of the Carnival. Some protesters climbed onto the roof of the station and unfurled a banner saying “Let's give this government a removal order. No to the Fear Bill.”
Demonstrations also took place in Brescia, Treviso, Vicenza, Schio, Cagliari and Lecce. Meanwhile, the right-wing is banking on the usual mechanism: using individual cases in the news to call for the “acceleration” of the process of approval of the government-initiated bill, which is still in committee in the Senate. And they are threatening recourse to the unassailable option of passing it as a decree with a vote of confidence, only because the parliamentary opposition forces are doing their job: they have raised the questions of the Bill’s constitutionality and respect for the rule of law, which in recent months have also ended up in the crosshairs of a number of supranational institutions.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/un-sabato-di-piazze-contro-il-ddl-paura-fermiamo-la-destra on 2025-02-23