• June 2, center-right in the square. Salvini: "We are here on behalf of the forgotten Italians"
  • Center-right in the square: "Strong social unease. Conte did not understand the economic and financial risk"

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02 June 2020There must have been 300 or 400 parliamentarians and political leaders, many more have arrived in the square with the center-right in Rome, the main of the more than 70 demonstrations called "not for protest", according to the leader of the League Matteo Salvini, "but for bring our proposals "and to represent" the forgotten Italians ". Result: a spectacular occupation of via del Corso (starting from piazza del Popolo) with a tricolor banner hundreds of meters long, some oddities like a flag with the Savoy coat of arms displayed in the procession on the day of the Republic Day and many controversies.

Political controversies arise from the management of the event that blew up the rules of social distancing: crush, selfies and some parade masks. Silvio Berlusconi, from his voluntary exile in France, he tweeted an explanation for the "limited number" event in the morning: "It is a civil, composed, only symbolic event. We had to limit the number of participants as much as possible to avoid the risk of gatherings and not to give bad examples. You cannot preach and then be the first to transgress. "

But the judgment that comes from the forces opposed to the center-right, that is, by the majority of government, does not support the optimistic morning forecast of the leader of Forza Italia, represented in the procession by Deputy Antonio Tajani, who guarantees, despite the "vaffa" of the procession towards Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, that there is "no divisive intent" in the square.

The divisions, on the other hand, are also fueled by the demonstration, judging by the reactions. Tough the leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate Andrea Marcucci : "There were many ways - he writes on Twitter - to express their dissent. Salvini and Meloni obviously chose the worst, not giving a damn about the sacrifices of millions of Italians. What a pity". His party colleague Matteo Orfini accuses Salvini and Meloni that "for four selfies and a few likes they risk frustrating the efforts that all Italians have made in these months". 

For Nicola Fratoianni , of the Italian Left, Meloni and Salvini are "irresponsible" for the hundreds of people "massed" in Rome: "Lowered masks, smartphones that pass from hand to hand for selfies, without gloves and without forms of protection and protection Then, please, in the halls of Parliament - he continues - keep on commemorating the dead of Bergamo ... Shame ". And the Greens, with the coordinator Angelo Bonelli , announce a complaint in the Public Prosecutor's Office: "All health measures have been violated and this is a disfigurement for those who fought, like health workers, against the Covid-19 pandemic". 

"The ugly images of the Rome event are yet another demonstration of the irresponsibility of the rights". So Achille Variati , Undersecretary for the Interior, in a note. "Freedom of expression is a fundamental value of our Republic, which we celebrate today; a value that we must protect even among the induced difficulties of the epidemic. For this reason a Static and symbolic political testimony, which instead has become a procession with thousands of people crowded together, in different without masks, without any distancing and no protection, and in the center Salvini and Meloni, committed to taking selfies with their supporters. Irresponsibility, of course. But also disrespect. "