«His Excellency the Prefect was busy with a very important meeting so he was unable to receive us in person. We left our document in the secretariat together with our contact details so that we could possibly have contact later.”
It was Rossella Bulsei of the Ti Tengo Stretto committee of Villa San Giovanni who was delegated to deliver the shared document to the prefecture. Document that was left behind due to the inability to be received as requested due to an ongoing urgent meeting.
Representatives of committees and associations who protested this afternoon in Piazza Italia in Reggio Calabria right in front of the Prefecture against the Security bill will therefore be received at a later time. According to the protesting groups, there are many threats to democracy contained in the text under discussion, such as the tightening of penalties for those who oppose the implementation of strategic works.
«The concern for the Bridge project – explained Rossella Bulsei of the Ti Tengo Stretto committee of Villa San Giovanni – increases due to the presentation of the amendment by deputy Iezzi to the security decree which proposes to tighten the sanctions against those who oppose it to the implementation of strategic works. Infrastructures are certainly necessary for everyone but it is right that these works give full guarantees, which at the moment the bridge project does not give anyone. The only guarantee is the actual threat to the territories. We would like to be listened to and we would like the position of dissent not to be demonized, but rather to be accepted for what it actually is, that is, for a different thought which does not necessarily have to be positive but can also be constructive”.
«We are worried – explained Peppe Marra, No Ponte Calabria movement – about the permanence of the right to demonstrate and dissent in our country. It has been proposed to introduce a sort of terrorism of the word against religious Islamic terrorism. However, as we have already seen happen in many other situations in our country, I remember the no TAV to which 41 bis was applied, penalties introduced against terrorism are also extended over the years to everything that is the social and political opposition. There is therefore a well-founded fear that what is proposed could completely undermine Article 21 of our Constitution.
In the aftermath of the beautiful and well-attended No Ponte a Villa demonstration last May 18th, the Honorable Iezzi of the League proposed an amendment which even quadruples these penalties for those who oppose works deemed strategic by a government and with respect to which It is the right of any Italian citizen to disagree with those same political choices. Since the Meloni government has been in place, unfortunately we have witnessed various laws that have limited freedom, such as the recent differentiated autonomy. We need to raise awareness and inform about what is happening, because these choices are acts that we consider very dangerous.” So again Peppe Marra, No Ponte Calabria movement.
A law whose discussion is intertwined with the Ponte affair due to the concomitance of another regulatory intervention. But that’s not the only coincidence that’s worrying.
An attack is underway on freedom of thought, on the freedom to peacefully express one’s ideas as the No Ponte movement has done for thirty years now. What worries us is also the concomitance of multiple measures. It is no coincidence that this provision which limits the possibility of opposing this useless and reckless project is being discussed at the same time as the approval of the decree-law on critical raw materials which in fact gives a crazy acceleration to the project and gives the possibility of carrying it out for tranches therefore even in the absence of an overall project, doing an enormous favor to the companies that will have the construction contract because at any time they will be able to claim incredible figures for the construction of the entire structure or parts of this structure. We reiterate that it is not It’s a coincidence that all this happens at the same time and really gives an acceleration to this intervention.” Thus Lidia Liotta of the Legambiente Reggio Calabria club.
«We don’t think it’s a coincidence that this safety bill was presented precisely at this juncture also marked by a series of social uprisings by workers demanding fair working conditions and adequate wages. There are now numerous renewals of national collective agreements under discussion and the government does not even have the funds to adapt these contracts to inflation that has reached up to 18%. We think that the Security Bill is an attempt to silence the world of work too.” So Vittorio Sacco, Usb Calabria.
The protest was also entrusted to a performance that symbolically staged the funeral of freedom killed by repression and authority.
«With a sort of Philippic we have decreed the death of Freedom and the erection of walls in which to imprison the feelings of the people like a Tower of Babel», said the activist and actress Valentina Albanese who played the Council of the Supreme Authority.
The document left today at the prefect’s secretariat was signed by No Ponte Calabria, Ti Tengo Stretto, Cesare Zavattini cinema club, Csc Nuvola Rossa, Reggio Calabria Città dello Sretto di Legambiente club, Usb Calabria Piccola Biblioteca sul Mare, No Rigass Calabria , Power to the People Calabria, Reggio Non Tace, Metropolis cultural association, The citizens of the Strait.
