Anti-fascist demonstration today at 6pm in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II: organized by the Anpi, the partisan association, after the attack on some students of the middle school students’ network and of Sinistra Universitaria Sapienza in Colle Oppio, by 4 Casa Pound militants, who have their headquarters in that area. «In returning to condemn the attack, he also returns to ask for the eviction of the publicly owned building which for years has become the fascist hideout of Casa Pound and the dissolution of this organization whose existence constitutes a danger to people’s safety. Any other delay, in addition to continuing to aggravate the damage to the treasury, would also constitute culpable complicity in further serious accidents should they occur”, writes the provincial Anpi of Rome. The attack, witnessed by a video taken with a mobile phone, took place on Tuesday evening, while the young people were returning from the demonstration in defense of the Constitution in Piazza Santi Apostoli in Rome.
The aggression
“Now I’ll steal his flag”: this is how the beating of the four students began. It was 8.40pm when the boys, who were carrying a red flag from the “Middle Students’ Network”, while passing near the “Cutty Sark” pub, a regular meeting place for militants of the far-right CasaPound movement, were brutally attacked by four people who took over their flag. One of the attacked filmed the perpetrators of the violence beating the students with his cell phone. One, in particular, was kicked while he was lying on the ground. The footage was handed over to the police and Digos investigators identified the group of attackers, of which one had already been tracked down by the police squad operators inside the pub. Already today, Digos will file a crime report with the Prosecutor’s Office against those responsible.
The political matrix
Due to the violence they suffered, the young people had to seek medical treatment. The young victims of the beating had immediately spoken of «neo-fascist-style aggression» because in Colle Oppio there is active «an far-right inspired group that usually meets and organizes activities in the former headquarters of the Italian Social Movement and which now has links with National Youth, the subject of a recent Fanpage investigation.” According to Paolo Notarnicola, representative of the Middle Students Network, «this aggression is the demonstration that we are trying to repress dissent. We will continue to report you. They tried to explain that fascism was over. Now there are no more excuses. We want the entire government and the competent institutions to respond to all this, because in the face of attacked students we cannot remain silent. We relaunch the appeal for the dissolution of neo-fascist and violent organizations.” Notarnicola recalls that this is just the umpteenth act of a «spiral of violence on the part of far-right groups, after the attack on Michelangiolo in Florence and that on the school representative of the Augusto high school».
National Youth immediately dissociated itself from the facts, giving its solidarity to the boys. «We reiterate our clear condemnation of any form of violence, the same condemnation that we would like there to be on the numerous occasions in which our children are attacked, even in schools and universities», underlines the President of Gioventù Nazionale Roma, Francesco Todde.
The request for government intervention
Mayor Roberto Gualtieri is also in solidarity with the kids: «Rome does not accept any form of violence and if anyone thinks they can intimidate with neo-fascist squadrism, typical of the weak and cowardly, they have misunderstood.” In expressing total solidarity and closeness to the attacked children “we demand that justice be done immediately against this shameful act of political violence”, adds the dem deputy Nicola Zingaretti. «We demand a clear condemnation from the Italian government and a commitment to stop the escalation of violence against freedom of thought. Those responsible must be immediately brought to justice.”
