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IN PICTURES: Demonstrators and far right clash with police in Rome after green pass protest

Thousands of people gathered in Rome's Piazza Del Popolo on Saturday shouting "Draghi, Draghi, vaffanculo [f**k you]", ahead of the extension of the Covid-19 health pass system to all workplaces on Friday.

Published: 10 October 2021 10:14 CEST
Demonstrators on the streets of Rome on Saturday night protesting the expansion of Italy's Covid-19 green pass system.
Demonstrators on the streets of Rome on October 9th, 2021 protesting the expansion of Italy's Covid-19 green pass system. Photo: Tiziana FABI / AFP

An estimated ten thousand people including members of far-right groups demonstrated in central Rome on Saturday against the extension of the Covid-19 health pass system to all workplaces.

There were scuffles with police as the demonstrators took aim at the health pass, which has been a requirement to enter museums, sporting events and restaurants since August.

READ ALSO: Anti-vax protesters in Rome target PM’s office and trade union headquarters

A protester rudely gesticulates at a policeman during protests against Italy's 'green pass'.

A protester gesticulates at a policeman during protests against Italy’s green pass. Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP

Although the march was authorised, several hundred people broke off from the main column and tried to march on parliament.

Police used water cannon and tear gas to stop them, arresting several people during clashes, the AGI news agency reported.

Members of what appeared to be the far-right group Forza Nuova attacked and occupied the headquarters of CGIL, the Italian General Confederation of Labour.

Italian riot police surround protesters in a bid to contain demonstrations which saw one group try to storm the Prime Minister's office.

Italian riot police surround protesters in a bid to contain demonstrations which saw one group try to storm the Prime Minister’s office. Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP

There were other protests in the northern city of Milan and in Cesena, central Italy.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s office released statement condemning “the violence that took place today in various Italian cities” and said the government “continues its commitment to complete the vaccination campaign against Covid-19”.

READ ALSO: Italy’s vaccination campaign slows as ‘green pass effect’ fails to materialise

A baby doll impaled with syringes is held up during a protest against the 'green pass' in Rome

A baby doll impaled with syringes is held up during a protest against the ‘green pass’ in Rome Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP

Three weeks ago the government announced that the green pass scheme would be extended to all places of work from October 15 and any employees refusing to comply faced suspension without pay.

READ ALSO: How Italy will enforce the new ‘green pass’ rules in all workplaces

The green pass system is already in place for all medical workers and those working in schools. It requires people to provide a certificate of vaccination, proof of recovery from Covid-19 or a recent negative test result.

Protesters shout abuse during clashes with police in Rome.

Protesters shout abuse during clashes with police. A number of far right groups were present. Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP

A protester protects herself from tear gas smoke during clashes in the street. Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP

Nearly 80 percent of the over-12s in Italy have been fully vaccinated, according to government statistics.

The first European country to feel the full force of the pandemic, Italy has so suffered more than 130,000 deaths.

Riot police vehicles front of Palazzo Chigi, which houses the prime minister’s office, as protesters tried to reach the building. Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP.

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ROME

Rome square filled with coffins in protest over Italy’s workplace deaths

A thousand coffins filled one of Rome's most famous squares on Tuesday as a trade union made a powerful statement on Italy's high number of deaths in accidents at work.

Published: 19 March 2024 17:01 CET
Rome square filled with coffins in protest over Italy's workplace deaths

“Every year, one thousand people go to work and don’t come home,” read a large sign displayed next to the 1,041 cardboard coffins set up around the obelisk in the centre of the Piazza del Popolo.

“Zero is still too far away,” read another sign in the square as curious tourists took snapshots.

Last year, 1,041 people died in workplace accidents in Italy.

“We brought these coffins here to raise awareness, to remind everyone of the need to act, to not forget those who have lost their lives,” Pierpaolo Bombardini, general secretary of the UIL union behind the protest told AFPTV.

The protest was also intended “to ask the government and politicians to do something concrete to prevent these homicides” he added.

“Because these are homicides. When safety rules are violated, they are not accidents, but homicides.”

Cardboard coffins fill Rome’s Piazza del Popolo on March 19th in a protest by the Italian Labor Union (UIL) intended to draw public attention to the number of deaths at work in Italy. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP)

Fatal accidents in the workplace regularly make headlines in the Italian press, each time sparking a debate on risk prevention. Most recently a concrete structure collapsed on the construction site of a supermarket in Florence last month, killing five people working at the site.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denounced it as “another story… of people who go out to work, who simply go out to do their job, and do not come home”.

Bombardini called for an increase in the number of inspections and inspectors.

“Companies that violate safety standards must be closed down,” he added. According to Eurostat’s most recent statistics, from 2021, on EU-wide workplace fatalities, Italy had 3.17 deaths per 100,000 workers.

That was above the European average of 2.23 per 100,000 works but behind France at 4.47 and Austria at 3.44.

The European Union’s three worst-faring countries are Lithuania, Malta and Latvia, while work-related fatalities are lowest in the Netherlands, Finland and Germany.

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