Pro-Palestinian students are beaten with batons, Mattarella-government clash: “A failure”. “It’s the left’s fault, we can’t touch the police”

“The President of the Republic reminded the Minister of the Interior, with his agreement, that the authority of the Police is not measured by batons but by its ability to ensure security while protecting, at the same time, freedom of expression. opinions publicly. With children, batons express failure. » This is the severe warning that the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella addressed in a telephone call to the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi, following the police pursuits against the students of Pisa: an action which shook the public opinion, until last night. during a peaceful demonstration attended by thousands of people in the same Tuscan city. A completely unusual intervention by the Quirinale in terms of public order management. A move by Mattarella probably dictated by the almost absent reaction of the Meloni government (today the Prime Minister is busy in kyiv) after the incidents in the streets. What the center-right majority nevertheless received with coldness. “Fratelli d'Italia defends the democratic rules of coexistence based on the right to demonstrate and the duty to do so peacefully and in compliance with the law. The left which supports the violent is the cause of the unrest we have witnessed,” responds harshly from the Prime Minister’s party.

The Deputy Prime Minister's response

Instead, the voice of Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani rises from the government, confirmed today as secretary of the Forza Italia congress. “We are guarantors and that is why we say that responsibility is individual. Police forces don't touch each other because the women and men who risk their lives every day for a few cents have families waiting for them and maybe they don't come back and they are all children of the people , not radical chic,” said the Deputy Prime Minister. “This does not mean that those who make mistakes should not be punished, but responsibility is always individual: if 1, 2 or 3 made a mistake , they cannot pay in the thousands.” Tajani also suggests that the responsibility instead lies with those who “continually provoke” (the police, ed). “I remember with great dignity this carabinieri who, motionless in the Val di Susa, was insulted for 15 minutes by a girl from the social centers or a financier who suffered the same treatment from an anti-vaccine .” As if to say that in the thankless job of presiding over tense street protests, maintaining calm and patience is a heroic gesture, and you may lose them.

Investigation

An investigation file was opened by the Pisa public prosecutor's office on yesterday's accusations and entrusted to the carabinieri. The images released yesterday on social media are being examined to understand whether the scale of the police reaction towards the demonstrators was proportionate or not. However, the police headquarters has filed with the public prosecutor's office, or is about to do so, a detailed report to the judicial authority, accompanied by videos filmed on the ground by the judicial police. Minister Piantedosi will meet the unions on Monday. The leader of the CGIL, Maurizio Landini, also intervened on the subject in a letter addressed to the owner of the Ministry of the Interior, expressing “his disapproval and his democratic concern”.

The opposition's attack on Piantedosi

“We need Piantedosi to finally come and clarify Parliament to the country and take responsibility. We can no longer witness unacceptable scenes like those we saw yesterday, of beatings of minors with batons, of minors being restrained and immobilized on the ground. It's not acceptable. This is not an isolated case. We have seen scenes like these in Florence, in Naples, in Bologna, there is a climate of repression for which we have already demanded accountability from Minister Piantedosi last week. It is necessary for him to come and clarify and take responsibility before Parliament,” said today the secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein. The leader of the M5S, Giuseppe Conte, spoke instead of the silence of the government. “President Meloni , once again you remained silent without saying a word, ignoring the violent batons that tried yesterday to silence the young people who peacefully took to the streets of Pisa and Florence,” he wrote on social networks .

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