Protesters against President Jair Bolsonaro’s (non-party) visit to Padua, in northern Italy, and the police clashed on Monday (1). An activist was arrested in the confusion.
At around 4 pm local time, participants in an anti-Bolsonaro act tried to break through the blockade of agents to march to the basilica of Santo Antonio, which the Brazilian later visited.
In front of the security cordon, activist Laura confronted the police and was then arrested. The protesters then attacked the agents, who responded with water jets.
In footage captured by Italian TV Rai, activists used flag poles, while police officers confronted protesters with shields, batons and tear gas canisters.
After the use of the water jets, tensions eased, and activists marched through the downtown streets shouting “freedom, freedom”. Mattia Sascina, one of the organizers of the protest, told the sheet that the acts will follow until the protester is released. “It was a very big deal, we didn’t expect it.”
Also according to Sascina, another activist was taken to hospital with injuries.
Although Bolsonaro visited the basilica in Padua, in theory there was no one to receive him officially. Neither Mayor Sergio Giordani nor church members were willing to meet him.
Perhaps because of this, and also due to the actions, the hypothesis arose that the president would have canceled the visit – the news agency Ansa even issued a note in which it stated that the event would no longer occur.
At 7 pm, however, when the church usually closes its doors, the Italian police who were present inside the basilica asked the press professionals to leave the place. Without official information from the government’s Communication Secretariat, confirmation that the visit had taken place came through the Instagram of Italian-Brazilian deputy Luis Roberto Lorenzato, of the xenophobic Liga Norte party.
In the video released by the congressman, Bolsonaro appears with his eyes closed, head down and with his right hand touching the tomb of St. Anthony of Padua. As usual, the record was later published on the president’s social networks.
At the time of the visit, the climate in the city had already cooled, but the shadow of new protests should reappear this Tuesday (2). One of the screams that echoed in Anguillara Vêneta recalled one of the commitments Bolsonaro will have.
In the city where he became an honorary citizen, Communist Refoundation party militants chanted “Silly Salvini, Bolsonaro is a murderer,” in reference to Matteo Salvini, a symbol senator of the Italian ultra-right and a supporter of the Brazilian president’s family in the country. Salvini must meet Bolsonaro during the tribute in Pistoia to the little soldiers who fought in World War II.
The meeting is symbolic of the route taken by the president in Italy. Isolated during the G20 summit, Bolsonaro had no bilateral meetings with world leaders. On the morning of the last day of the meeting, he preferred to take a walk instead of listening to Prince Charles.
The second outing of the day, in turn, was marked by attacks on journalists. Thus, the meeting with Salvini shows that Bolsonaro’s influence is restricted to his circle.
The protest in Padua was the second of the day faced by Bolsonaro. In Anguillara Vêneta, where he went earlier, the Brazilian president was also the target of activists who call him, in most cases, a genocide, in criticism of the conduct he imposed on the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil.
In Anguillara, Bolsonaro received the title of honorary citizen from the hands of Mayor Alessandra Buoso, linked to the far-right Liga Norte party. The honor, approved at the touch of a box, was surrounded by controversy.
For the mayor, the granting of the title would be a “homage to the Italians who had left for Brazil and to the Venetian origins”, since it was in the Italian city that Bolsonaro’s great-grandfather was born.
Opposition members, such as councilor Antônio Spada, however, oppose the tribute, stating that the mayor contradicts herself, “because she presented another proposal, saying that she would grant citizenship because the president promotes Venetian history.” “But Bolsonaro never even talked about Anguillara.”
In the city of 4,000 inhabitants, the president also saw expressions of support. Singing the national anthem and dressed in Brazilian national team shirts, they gathered in front of the city hall and then moved to Villa Arca del Santo, where the president received the title of Buoso.
The demonstrations against the mayor’s decision started on Friday, (29), when some protesters linked to the environmental group Rise Up 4 Climate Justice threw manure at the entrance to the city hall and spray-painted the façade with “Fora Bolsonaro”. For the group, “the president represents the capitalist, predatory, destructive and colonialist model against which we are fighting”.
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