A real organized guerrilla war. The toll of the violence that exploded on the afternoon of July 25th during the traditional No Tav march organized as part of the “High Happiness” festival. What started out as a peaceful demonstration of around twenty thousand people has ended transformed into a guerrilla war when a group of hooded antagonists, equipped with gas masks and goggles, broke away from the main procession to attack the high-speed train sites in Chiomonte and San Didero.
The clashes were very violent. The protesters threw stones, paper bombs, rockets and even Molotov cocktails at the police forces deployed to defend the construction sites. Four police and financial police vehicles were set on fire. The police responded with tear gas and water cannons.
According to initial estimates, 126 operators were injured: 58 policemen, 48 carabinieri and 20 financiers. Around 450 protesters have been identified.
The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, who followed the events with apprehension, called the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi on the evening of the 25th to ask him to convey his solidarity and thanks to the police officers for their action in the service of the national community. The Head of State also expressed his closeness to the injured officers.
Words of support also came from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who wrote on social media: «Those who throw paper bombs, set fire to state vehicles and attack the police are not defending an idea, they are attacking the state». And again: «Violence will not bend the State: those who serve Italy will never be left alone».
The police unions also intervened in the matter and asked not to be exploited and to give concrete answers on such serious facts. «We are tired of being targets» the various unions say almost in chorus. «The deceased was searched for with conscience and will, it is a
attempted murder and all those present participated”, stated the General Secretary of SAP (Autonomous Police Union), Stefano Paoloni.
AND Valter Mazzetti, General Secretary Fsp State Police, commented: «Beyond all the usual phrases of circumstance, yesterday in Chiomonte was yet another defeat for the State», «all politics and, as a result, the entire security apparatus, have been incapable of putting the police in a position to defend and defend themselves, leaving women and men in uniform hostage to the violent and exposed to enormous risks. The police are now tired of being a simple subject of skirmishes between politicians who in these circumstances speak using the ‘first person’ while on the field, taking bombs, it is not them who are there but servants in uniform used as pawns, numbers, puppets”. After having asked to delimit the construction sites by making them a military zone to prevent anyone from approaching, the unions return “to relaunch our proposal for the introduction of street terrorism because the police forces, forced to suffer violence of all kinds, today operate with blunt weapons”. Finally, Mazzetti underlines that «from Bologna to Chiomonte to every other occasion, the issue of safety is exploited only as a slogan for electoral campaigns, but in truth no one gives a damn about staff in uniform who end up in hospital». AND Giuseppe Coco, deputy secretary of SAP, adds from the microphones of TG1 an appeal “for a greater sense of responsibility for those who hold important positions of a political and trade union nature and also for communication to avoid fomenting conflict and this repulsion towards the police forces”. Coco himself had previously asked for «a pact of pacification and pragmatic, non-ideological policies, on how to tackle the problem with a sense of responsibility on all sides» without exploitation, because «the police have no political colour, they do not belong to any party. We swear loyalty to the flag and the Constitution and we stand for guaranteeing civil coexistence for good people.”
