A new vision of Europe. The concrete demonstration of the commitment that will be made, until June, in the attempt to bring down the last red fort. And on the other hand, a counter-demonstration that promises to be hot and, potentially, very dangerous. The Democratic Party (in name, but rarely in fact) did not like the League’s choice to organize the start of its electoral campaign for the European elections (which will take place together with important local administrative rounds) in Florence, next Sunday. And so mayor Dario Nardella and the coordinator of the Tuscan secretariat Andrea Giorgio publicly invoked the square, to demonstrate their bitterness towards the “black construction site” represented (in the words of the Dem representatives) by Marie Le Pen, Alice Weidel and Geert Selvagens. The CPA, the social center illegally occupied for twenty years, which every February 10th courageously displays Tito’s Yugoslav flag in contempt for the martyrs of Foibe, responded to the Democratic Party’s call. And tomorrow it will be in the square. A banner also appeared in front of the headquarters, in via Villamagna, banally red: “Salvini, Le Pen, Florence disgusts you”.
In Tuscany, according to rumors collected by our newspaper, antagonists are about to arrive from all corners of the country. Ready to set the city on fire. The concern is great, especially because the demonstration by Carlo Marx’s grandchildren will take place just a few hundred meters from Cascine Park. Where, as is tradition, thousands of Florentines will converge to head to the Christmas Fair, a gigantic open-air market. Without forgetting the Fiorentina-Salernitana Serie A game, which has always been one of the riskiest games due to the old acrimony between the two fans. A fear of clashes that risks also involving today’s event, organized in the Salone del Duecento of Palazzo Vecchio by Carroccio and called “The city of the future”, in which, among others, parliamentarians Andrea Barabotti, Luca Toccalini and the leader of the municipal group Frederico Bussolin. «The League is looking for an enemy, it is hoping that there is some troublemaker who will raise the tone in order to draw attention to its initiative, becoming victims of an intolerant left – said Dario Nardella to the Contraradio microphones – I believe that the League organizers hope that in this new vision there will be an exaggerated reaction by some protesters to gain visibility and cause victims”. But it’s not enough. The Democrat representative also took it out on the director of the Uffizi Gallery, Eike Schmidt, who, barring last-minute earthquakes, will soon formalize his candidacy with the center-right. The art historian (who became Italian this week during a ceremony held at the Palazzo Vecchio, in which Nardella did not want to participate) will be the man chosen by the moderates to tear down the last red fort. And thus conquer Florence. «I am not surprised that the representatives of Identity and Democracy, invited by the leader of the League Matteo Salvini, go to the Uffizi and are received with all the honors by Schmidt who has long been indicated as a possible right-wing candidate in Florence». The response from the League’s MEP, Susanna Ceccardi, is ready. «Nardella has been humiliating and bending an entire city for years in a gigantic political marketing operation, in which he is the absolute protagonist to electorally promote his figure at national and European level, but with bad results. So we don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the accusation he makes against the director of the Uffizi Galleries.”
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
