• In Bibbiano the challenge Lega-Sardine, historic center 'armored'
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  • At the League the main square of Bibbiano, Questura "moves" the Sardines. Activists today in Bologna
  • Bibbiano, Andrea Carletti can go back to being mayor: "I will resume the interrupted path"
  • Cassation: unfounded measures against the mayor of Bibbiano
  • Illicit custody: mayor Bibbiano lawsuit, also Di Maio. Review denies new arrest

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January 23, 2020

Two squares divided tonight in Bibbiano, the municipality of Reggiano, the scene of the investigation into alleged abuse and illegal custody. On the one hand, the Lega event in view of Sunday's vote, with Matteo Salvini and the candidate for the Emilia Romagna Region, Lucia Borgonzoni; on the other that of the Sardines, which fill not one, but two squares for the counter-demonstration organized simultaneously with that of Salvini. The Libero Grassi square assigned by the police headquarters to the movement born two months ago in Bologna, in fact, is not enough to contain all the people who arrive in the Reggio Emilia municipality with silhouettes of sardines and signs "Bibbiano non si Lega" or "Bibbiano is only linked salami ".

Salvini: "In Bibbiano to ask for justice, hands off the children"
"This is not a party evening, but an evening that should bring together all decent people because when it comes to defending children we should all be united." Matteo Salvini thus opens the event. "The protagonists will be only mothers, fathers and children. Unfortunately there are some hundreds of mothers and fathers and victims of injustice, but we asked five witnesses to speak also on behalf of those who are no longer there".

"Sardines controversy, the good of children unite"
"Sorry that a few meters away from here there is someone ready to make controversy: the good of children should unite everyone. Politics should not be divided on this," says the leader of the League shortly before the Sardine demonstration begins in a other square, not far away. "We are not here to accuse anyone - continues Salvini -, but to ask for justice, as of tomorrow we will do everything possible to have justice".

"If thousands of people from all over Italy are here to give their testimony, it means that there is a problem. Because the children are of mom and dad and not of the state, as I read in a sign over there" he adds, giving the floor ex Minister of the Family, Alessandro Locatelli, who presents the parents who have decided to tell their story from the stage. Tonight "the microphone goes to them, brave women and men," says the League leader.

A mother speaks: as long as I live I will fight to change things
"Years ago I lost my partner, killed for futile reasons. Then, after years, they declared my daughter adoptable, to be entrusted to the social services of the Val D'Enza. When they told me I almost fell to the ground: I was thinking of a mistake, but not there was no mistake "tell one of the mothers, Valeria Bigi, the first to intervene on stage. "A country must be united on these issues. My father didn't hold up after that story: after a month and a half he died. He was one of the last partisans of the Val D'Enza," he adds. "I swore that as long as I live I will fight to change things. We - he concludes - felt protected only by Matteo Salvini, when he was minister. Only then did we feel the neighboring state". Then it's the turn of a dad: "When you notice a problem with a neighbor, talk to him, have a coffee together, but don't call the social services" he says. "Shame, shame" shouts the square after these first testimonies from the stage. "There are over 26,000 children far away, often for justified reasons- Salvini intervenes-. But if there was only one away from mom and dad for no reason then it is the duty of a civilian people to bring him home. We must revise the law on custody shared: mom and dad can fight but the kids have to stay with the families ". And he concludes: "Maximum respect for those family homes that seriously help children, maximum contempt for those structures that made money out of children". He then calls Tommy's mother, the kidnapped and killed in 2006, on stage: "I present Paola, her angel is up and waiting for justice".

Tommy's mom: "A boulder gives her jailer a prize"
"A boulder, after 14 years in prison, went out for a prize permit, discounted two thirds of the sentence, I hoped that the judge would not grant them" says Paola, referring to the woman who was part of the kidnapping gang. "For me, jailers are three killers," concludes the woman.

Borgonzoni: "Commission of inquiry immediately"
"We immediately ask for a commission of inquiry into this matter," said the candidate of the center-right to the Emilia-Romagna Region, Lucia Borgonzoni, in her speech that closes the League event.

Piazza delle Sardine 'quotes Segre: "Think with your head"
In Libero Grassi square there are young people and adults with dozens of sardine and fish symbols and background music, from Vasco Rossi to Modena City Ramblers. There are signs with ironic or controversial references to the League leader. Like the banner with the inscription "Salvini intercom to the Camorra players if you have courage!" or "Let's talk about Savoini". On another banner there is a quote from life senator Liliana Segre: "Think with your head, not with that of the one who shouts loudest", words spoken by the senator for life, who survived Auschwitz, during the meeting with students at the Arcimboldi theater in Milan on the occasion of the Memorial Day. Copies of the Constitution are distributed alongside the truck that is the stage for the event.

"We jammed the hate machine"
"We are many, a colorful sea. The sardines have jammed the hate machine. We chose how to do it, but this square was made by itself, and it was enough to leave the house and go to the real world" say two activists from Reggio Emilia Sardines opening the event. And referring to the controversy of the investigation into the alleged illegal custody, they add: "This country is different from how it was mounted mediatically. Bibbiano deserves cleaning of words and not only".

Santori: "In the community square who asked us for help"
'' The meaning of this manifestation is to realize against how much discrepancy there is between the real and the mediaticity of a phenomenon. How much a media machine can distort and create discrepancy with reality '' says Sardine spokesman, Mattia Santori. '' In terms of numbers, I went over there but it seems to me that they are a thousand maybe, here we will be 4 or 5 thousand, there are many cars that are coming. And beyond the numbers, this is the presentation of a community. This is a community that has asked us for help '' to '' tell another type of Bibbiano ''.

The slogan of the Northern League meeting in Bibbiano, 'hands off children' is "instrumental marketing of a court case that assumes that there are no people here who care about children. It is evidently erroneous and instrumental" adds Santori in the margin of the 'event.

According to estimates by the police, the citizens gathered in the Piazza delle Sardine are around 2,000. That is, almost 500 more than those gathered under the League stage.