Reportage
No space for Bezos: Venice will not throw out the red carpet for the billionaire groom
‘I want Jeff Bezos greeted with open arms!’ the mayor of Venice says. The people who live there feel differently: ‘We’re ready to dive into the canals and form a human barrier to stop celebrity guests from reaching the Scuola della Misericordia.’
Venetians are getting ready to give a less-than-warm welcome to the “wedding of the century” between Amazon founder – and world’s third-richest man – Jeff Bezos and his partner Lauren Sánchez, whose official bio lists her as a “philanthropist.”
After activists unfurled a huge banner from the bell tower on San Giorgio – the island that the mogul has rented out entirely for the festivities – members of the No Space for Bezos committee gathered on Friday evening in Campo San Giacometto, at the foot of the Rialto Bridge, to plan fresh protests and stop what they call yet another step towards the commodification of the city.
“Venice does not belong to the oligarch Bezos, nor to Mayor Brugnaro – Venice belongs to the people who live here,” declared committee spokesperson Federica Toninello, greeted by applause. “We’re ready to dive into the canals and form a human barrier to stop celebrity guests from reaching the Scuola della Misericordia. We did it against the cruise ships, and we’ll do it again to shut down this farce that insults Venice’s dignity.” The “canal swim,” Toninello added, is scheduled for Saturday, June 28.
Officially the celebrations are supposed to wrap up on Friday, but insiders say the wedding itself will actually happen a day later, at the Scuola della Misericordia. “Everyone working on the staging has been ordered to keep quiet,” Federica went on, “but in a city like ours, it’s practically impossible to keep a secret. We know the ceremony is set for Saturday – and we already have our swimsuits ready.”
That news will not please Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, who was furious about the banner on San Giorgio: “I’m ashamed of them, this violent minority chasing publicity, protesting because one of the richest people on Earth has chosen Venice for his wedding.” He was genuinely puzzled: “How can you protest against someone who brings visibility and wealth?”
For an “entrepreneur-mayor” who brags about running city hall like one of his companies, it is hard to grasp that not everyone will be happy about a multibillionaire coming to town. “I want Jeff Bezos greeted with open arms!” Brugnaro insisted. “It’s an honor he’s coming to Venice, and we are extremely proud. May he ever prosper, it’s great that he’s coming and perhaps he’ll come again in a private setting.” Never mind that Milan prosecutors are investigating Amazon for alleged tax fraud and labor exploitation, or that Amazon and Google, through Project Nimbus, are providing cloud-computing services to the Israeli government.
After all, you don’t amass a fortune estimated by Forbes at 215 billion dollars by having too many moral qualms. “But us, we do have them,” says Alice Bazzoli of No Space for Bezos. “Mr. Amazon isn’t just the ‘successful entrepreneur’ the mayor is praising – he’s an oligarch who fights every attempt at unionization. His business spews a disproportionate share of emissions, worsening the climate crisis. Not to mention he backs Trump, who is defending the interests of the super-rich and is sending in the Marines to repress migrants. Bezos is the perfect embodiment of an oligarchic, warmongering, masculinist and extractivist world.”
“If Brugnaro is ashamed of us, we’re ashamed of him in turn,” Toninello concluded. “Instead of tossing us crumbs from the table of the powerful, he should reopen abandoned homes, curb the B&B invasion, restore services for residents and build an economy that isn’t dependent on tourism alone.”
The No Space for Bezos committee now counts the entire environmental network in Venice among its allies – Extinction Rebellion, parties like the Green-Left Alliance (AVS), the partisans’ association ANPI, social centers and virtually every Venice citizens’ committee, from No Navi (against large cruise ships) to No Inceneritore (against the project to build a trash incinerator nearby). On Saturday, June 28, they all plan to don swimsuits and jump in.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/venezia-un-tuffo-in-laguna-contro-le-nozze-di-bezos on 2025-06-15