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Renzi vows L’Aquila will be rebuilt amid protests

Hundreds of people from the Abruzzo region gathered in L’Aquila on Tuesday evening to protest against premier Matteo Renzi’s visit to the city, which was devastated by an earthquake in 2009.

Published: 26 August 2015 09:32 CEST

Renzi vows L'Aquila will be rebuilt amid protests

L'Aquila's rebuild since the devastating earthquake in 2009 has languished. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

Clashes between police and protesters forced the cancellation of the first part of Renzi’s visit to Palazzo Fibbioni, the city’s new council headquarters, Il Messaggero reported.

But he managed to fulfill the second stage of the visit to the Gran Sasso Science Institute, despite tensions nearby.

An estimated 500 people filled the streets to protest against the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, which is set to bring gas from Azerbaijan to Europe and will cross a seismic area in the Abruzzo city of Sulmona.

Protesters held banners saying “Renzi, Renzi, get out of Abruzzo”, “we don’t want the drilling” and “we don’t want the pipeline”.

Four people, including a police officer, were reportedly injured in the clashes.

The 6.3-magnitude earthquake in April 2009 left 309 dead and L’Aquila and the surrounding area devastated.

Many buildings in the city still lie in ruins, despite hundreds of millions of euros allocated to reconstruction.

Renzi on Tuesday pledged that the “money is there” for the languishing rebuild and that he will return in a year to “check the sites”.

“The priority is the old town,” he added.

It was Renzi's first visit to the city as premier.

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Turkish community in Germany gathers to help earthquake victims

In dozens of cities in Germany, donations are being collected for victims of the massive earthquake, which as of Wednesday afternoon had claimed more than 11,000 lives.

People are bringing tent stoves, flashlights, diapers, fleece blankets, and hand warmers. One of the many collection points has been organized by the German-Turkish care service Dosteli in Berlin.

At the governmental level, Germany — home to about three million people of Turkish origin — will” mobilise all the assistance we can activate”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Wednesday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had a call with Erdogan and sent his “deep condolences”, as a search and rescue team left Tuesday afternoon with 50 rescuers and equipment.

The EU said it was “funding humanitarian organisations that are carrying out search and rescue operations” in Syria as well as providing water and sanitation support and distributing blankets.

Charities line up to help

Particularly in Berlin, where over eight percent of the population is of Turkish origin, people have lined up down streets to drop off supplies. But they have led large donation efforts in cities like Frankfurt and Hamburg, where several businesses like bars set aside space to collect supplies,

The Dostali team had been sorting clothes and hygiene items all night, packing them and loading them into trucks. “Almost the entire Turkish diaspora in Berlin was there,” one volunteer told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ)

The helpers organized themselves via appeals in social media. From the collection points, the donations are to be transported by trucks and planes to the affected regions.

READ ALSO: Who are Germany’s foreign population and where do they live?

In response to an inquiry from the FAZ, Turkish Airlines confirmed that it was delivering donations from 14 countries to the Turkish crisis areas, Germany being one of them.

The Turkish community in Germany is well connected via social media – “and everyone wants to help,” said Kübra Oguz, a volunteer with the Puduhepa e.V., initiative founded by Turkish migrant women.

In order for this to happen in a targeted manner, she recommended directly donating money, which could then be funneled to buy food, hygiene products or shoes, depending on the need.

Several organisations in Germany and worldwide are also accepting donations for humanitarian aid, include UNICEF, Save the Children and Aktion Deutschland Hilft.

With reporting from AFP.

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