Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Rome demanding improved social housing and an end to the eviction of people who fall behind on their rent. The police had turned up looking for confrontation and gleefully responded to a man climbing on a police vehicle and fruit being thrown, with baton charges, pepper spray, and tear gas.
Large numbers of migrants and refugees – many of whom sleep rough or in slums across Rome – joined in the demonstration. Many people carried banners that read, “Stop to evictions and seizure of property”, whilst throwing pieces of fruit at the police.
Local reports suggest that there were at least 6 people who required hospital treatment, and a large number of people had been dragged away and arrested.
The protest was timed to coincide with a nearby meeting of city and government officials who were discussing the housing crisis. One of the demonstration organisers, Paulo Di Vetta, said that:
"Today's protest was set up to call for concrete acts from the government on housing, but instead of that they got out their shields and truncheons,"
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Comments
I think this is an important
I think this is an important topic and there are a lot of interesting developments in Italy. So it is a bit disappointing that this blog post doesn't really tell us anything, because its writing is pretty sloppy.
The most important information missing is the date of the demonstration! Is the post talking about the October 19 demonstrations?