ROME (AP) – Italian restaurant owners and others angry over the closure of their businesses for weeks following a virus crackdown that clashed with police during a rally outside parliament in Rome on Tuesday as hundreds of protesters blocked a major highway in the south has.
The Italian news agency LaPresse said one officer was injured in the bickering. RAI state TV said seven protesters were detained by police.
Many in the crowd of several hundred protesters outside the Chamber of Deputies lowered their masks to shout “Work!” and “Freedom!” Some threw flames of smoke or other objects.
Eating and drinking at restaurants, bars and cafes is currently banned until at least April. Only pick-up or drop-off services are allowed.
Officers charged some protesters after trying to break a police cordon. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, members of a far-right political group joined the protest with the business owners.
Among the protesters was Hermes Ferrari, owner of a restaurant in Modena, a city in northern Italy. He boasted that he had challenged the authorities for months by opening up his institution for meals in violation of government decisions.
Although the fines accumulated, ‘I could pay my workers’, Ferrari said by keeping the business open.
Ferrari shouted at fellow restaurant owners during the protest to follow his lead.
“You have to open it, because no one can say you have to close,” he shouted.
The current and previous governments of Italy have allocated millions of euros in aid to categories particularly hard hit by pandemic restrictions.
The business owners are urging them to reopen permanently. Restaurants and cafes in regions with a lower incidence of cases and less critical consequences for ICUs in the hospital – so-called yellow zones – were sometimes allowed to sit and drink before nightfall.
But a current increase in infections, driven mainly by virus variants, has now seen daily new cases in tens of thousands and hundreds of COVID-19 deaths for months now. This prompted the Italian government to temporarily eliminate the yellow zone designation before the Easter holidays until the rest of April.
Undersecretary Carlo Sibilia, who has solidarity with the injured police officer, said violence would not be tolerated. “
Nevertheless, Sibilia, of the populist 5-star movement, called on the government to, in addition to the explosion of vaccines, ‘immediately’ provide new compensatory funds for economic activities that have been shut down or penalized by the recent restrictions’.
Sibilia insisted on state guarantees for loans, a moratorium on the payment of mortgage loans, a cessation of evictions and compensation for lost income due to COVID-19 measures.
Hours earlier, near the southern city of Caserta, another demonstration blocked traffic on the A1 highway. Among the hundreds of protesters were those working in outdoor markets and owners of gyms and restaurants, Italian news agency LaPresse said. Gyms have been closed for months.
Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese is protesting as unacceptable protests that turn violent or make citizens uncomfortable.
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AP journalist Gordon Walker in Rome contributed to this report.
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