Coronavirus, night of violence in Florence: 20 arrests.

Notte di guerriglia urbana in centro a Firenze: lancio di molotov e lacrimogeni

Urban warfare night in the center of Florence: Molotov cocktails and tear gas

FLORENCE. Twenty people arrested and some officers injured are the toll of the night of violence that exploded yesterday around 9 pm in Florence. A city taken by storm, after the devastation of the center of Turin with clashes with the police. Clashes that were also seen yesterday in Florence: throwing of stones and bottles towards the police committed to stem an unauthorized demonstration. Not only that: three or four Molotov cocktails were launched almost immediately against the men in uniform, in via dell’Albero, and for this reason the first four people in the antagonist area were stopped.

«They made us live a surreal, terrible and painful night – are the words of Dario Nardella, mayor of Florence -. This is not how one’s reasons manifest themselves, this is not how suffering is given voice. It is only violence for its own sake, gratuitous. Those who disfigure Florence must pay for what they have done ».

Florence, new protests against Dpcm: tension with the police

Overall, according to a first estimate of the police, there are over a thousand people who participated in the protests, moving in small groups that scattered around the historic center, creating unrest and clashing with the police. During the riots in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, an underground dumpster was set on fire and the intervention of the fire brigade was necessary to put out the flames.

The demonstration – under the pretext of the protest against the anti-coronavirus Dpcm – had not been announced at the police headquarters, but was born through a rumble on social media. Two hundred demonstrators found themselves in via Calzaioli and were blocked by a police cordon in riot gear at the entrance to Piazza della Signoria. Slogans were shouted against the police and journalists. Then the number of people on the street went up. A second group of demonstrators was instead intercepted and blocked by the police in Piazza della Repubblica. In the end – as mentioned – we are talking about a thousand people. Throwing paper bombs, glass bottles, bins and overturned planters: the same scene that the week just ended saw in other cities in Italy.

Infuriated by what happened, in addition to the mayor of Florence, also the President of the Council of Tuscany, Antonio Mazzeo. It is not by throwing bottles at the police that the economy restarts. I am and will always be available to listen to those who manifest civilly and peacefully, but I will always condemn no ifs and buts who take to the streets moved by other purposes that have nothing to do with the tragedy experienced by thousands of families “.

“The violence of a few troublemakers, clearly organized with cowardly anonymous flyers, was opposed by law enforcement agencies to whom our strong and profound closeness and solidarity goes – is instead the message on Facebook of the president of Tuscany, Eugenio Giani – Massimo respect towards workers, companies, businesses that have forcibly closed businesses and limited opening due to the pandemic, always in dialogue with them. The small groups on Friday evening, probably from outside, have nothing to do with them. The citizens of Florence and Tuscany certainly do not bow to violence but will be united to face the emergency together as our people have always done, with a spirit of community, in the most difficult moments of history! ».