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Italian climate activists face trial for throwing paint at Senate

An Italian judge ruled on Tuesday that environmental activists who sprayed the Senate building with washable paint, angering the government, must stand trial.

Published: 3 January 2023 16:46 CET
Italian climate activists face trial for throwing paint at Senate
Rome's Palazzo Madama after being sprayed with washable paint. Photo: Ultima Generazione

Activists Laura, 26, Davide, 23, and Alessandro, 21, who belong to the Last Generation group and go by their first names, are accused of criminal damage and risk up to three years behind bars.

They were among five climate activists who on Monday used fire extinguishers to spray the front of the upper house of the Italian parliament in Rome with washable orange paint.

It was just the latest of a series of protests in which activists have thrown paint or flour at, or glued themselves to, notable artworks or buildings in Italy, most recently Milan’s La Scala opera house in December, in a bid to focus political and public attention on impending climate disaster.

Their actions were in response to the “willingness of political and economic elites to deliberately choose to condemn much of the global population to drought, famine, war and death,” Laura said in a statement.

Police quickly arrived on the scene on Monday as the activists hurled orange paint across the windows, walls and vast wooden door of Palazzo Madama, home of the Senate.

They seized the fire extinguishers and detained all five activists, before releasing two.

Last Generation said the arrests were “aimed at intimidating and criminalising those who are trying to bring attention to the real crime that this government is perpetrating”.

READ ALSO: Why are climate protesters glueing themselves to Italian artworks?

The trial for the three arrested will begin on May 12, their lawyer Ilaria Salamandra told AFP.

“The defence hopes the court will change the offence,” reducing it to soiling rather than damage, a lesser charge that carries a punishment of between six months to one year, she said.

Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni slammed the protest as an “outrageous gesture”, while Senate speaker Ignazio La Russa, from Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, said it was “cowardly”.

Stefano Feltri, editor of the left-wing Domani newspaper, noted on Monday that climate activists in Italy were “treated more harshly than hooligan leaders who collude with organised crime”.

Last Generation began carrying out peaceful but disruptive protests in Italy last year ahead of the general election, urging politicians from all parties to make climate change their priority.

READ ALSO: Climate activists hurl pea soup at Van Gogh painting in Rome

Activists threw paint at Milan’s famed La Scala opera house last month and have targeted artworks in museums in protests designed not to damage the works, but rather to highlight the risk of environmental disaster.

The group wants Italy to invest more in renewable energy, pause the reopening of old coal power plants, and cancel all fracking operations.

The protests in Italy are part of a series of actions across Europe to focus attention on climate change.

Activists have targeted masterpieces such as the “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer at The Hague’s Mauritshuis museum, Klimt’s “Death and Life” in Vienna’s Leopold Museum or Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” at London’s National Gallery, hurling soup or other food at the paintings behind glass.

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ENVIRONMENT

OPINION: Why Italy lags behind Europe on green policies – and things aren’t changing

With climate protests by young Italians and talk of clean energy policy, will Italy finally change its ways and catch up with other European countries? Silvia Marchetti argues a much bigger cultural shift is needed before Italy could truly go green.

Published: 16 May 2024 10:50 CEST
OPINION: Why Italy lags behind Europe on green policies - and things aren't changing

There’s a lot of talk about environmental-friendly practices and spreading awareness on climate change, but I must admit Italians are perhaps the least eco-conscious of all Europeans. 

We struggle to keep up with the rest of Europe. From buying more bottled water than almost any other country to repeatedly delaying a ‘plastic tax’ and dumping on beaches and in parks, it’s part of a general cultural attitude which has very little ‘green’ in it, even though the pandemic and soaring energy costs have pushed a minority of Italians to become perhaps a bit more careful. 

Too many Italians just have that ‘che me ne frega’ approach (meaning ‘I really don’t care’), which gets on my nerves and is quite ingrained in the general mentality. 

When I used to live in Holland back in 2002, there were drinking water fountains everywhere, people filled their own portable insulated bottles which were not made of plastic, and which seemed to me so cool and fashionable.

While in Rome we have the famous fontanoni (historical water spouts), locals either use their hands to drink, or still buy glass and plastic cups and bottles to fill and then throw away. 

When it comes to recycling waste, only half of Italy does it properly, while the Baltic countries are the most efficient waste-wise among the 27 members of the European Union. 

I live north of Rome, in the countryside, and differentiated waste disposal services arrived in my comune just six years ago, while at my seaside house south of the capital, this happened only last year. In Rotterdam, where I lived during university, citizens had been recycling waste since at least a decade earlier. 

READ ALSO: Why Trento is ranked as Italy’s ‘greenest’ place to live

Some 25 years ago, when I was in Geneva, people walking their dogs would scoop up their pets’ poo with recyclable gloves and place it in neat plastic bags; that’s something you’d see hardly anyone do even nowadays in Italy.

I’m at times ashamed of saying so, but we have really bad habits – like keeping the tap water running even when you don’t need it, such as during one-hour showers or while brushing teeth, turning the lights on at night in the garden when everyone is at home and no guests are expected, and buying endless motorini (scooters) for the kids and then one car per adult family member.

The Italian love of cars results in heavy traffic and dangerous levels of pollution – but will this ever change? (Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP)

I think this is all due to the fact that most Italians are very showy, even in energy consumption. Keeping house lights or car usage down to a minimum would imply to neighbors a state of precarious wealth, if not almost poverty. 

There’s another factor that plays a major role. Italy, as opposed to other European countries, has always heavily relied on gas and oil consumption, not on alternative green energy that still sounds quite futuristic. This dependency on fossil fuels will likely lead to our demise if we don’t act.

READ ALSO: Italians and their cars are inseparable – will this ever change?

The post-pandemic funds given by the European Union should boost investments in alternative and green energy, but the effects will only be seen in the long run.

In order to have a positive impact, the money must be efficiently spent. Almost 37 percent of a total €191 billion of European aid is expected to go into funding green investments in Italy over the next few years. 

But it all reads very vague at the moment, and I’m afraid the Italian approach might change only slightly, no matter the ambitious government plans. It’s more wishful thinking. 

In the rest of Europe children are taught about climate change and how to adopt good practices in everyday life. I have friends in Belgium whose kids read about recycling plastic and reducing weekly the number of plastic water bottles they buy.

READ ALSO: What is it with Italians and bottled water?

In order to have a radical change in Italians’ attitudes, environmental awareness must be spread inside schools and among children. It really depends on the future generations.

The younger generations, born in an era already marred by environmental damage, are the only ones in Italy who can really ‘go green’ in everything they do and consume.

Recent protests by student climate change activists in Italy, even if small compared to those staged across Europe, are a sign of a changing mentality among youth.

But in order to further spread awareness, a more pro-environmental education is paramount.

Unfortunately though, there is no political debate around improving education on environmental issues in Italy, mainly due to a lack of political wisdom or forward-looking strategy.

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