Italy wants to punish activists it calls ‘ecovandals’ – 04/22/2023 – World

In recent months, the targets have been the façade of the Senate and the fountain in Piazza di España, in Rome, the statue of King Vittorio Emanuele II, in front of the Duomo in Milan, and an external wall of the Palazzo Vecchio, in Florence. Before, they had been Vatican museums, as well as blockades against the flow of cars and private jets.

Protests by the Ultima Generazione (last generation) group, which calls for the end of public funding for fossil fuels, gained intensity in Italy and came under the government’s crosshairs.

The activists’ methods include smearing washable paint on monuments, sticking their hands to artwork or the ground in streets, and pouring charcoal water into fountains, presumably without causing permanent damage.

An exception is the monument in Milan, where, more than a month later, the yellow paint still cannot be removed with water, and the municipality will have to carry out a special restoration operation.

Although actions against museums and monuments have great repercussions, those that most irritate the population are those that interrupt the flow of cars, causing traffic.

On the last 11th, after a meeting between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her cabinet, a bill was announced that provides for stricter fines, between €10,000 and €60,000 (R$56,000 and R$336,000), for those who destroys, stains or disfigures, in whole or in part, cultural and landscape assets.

The measures join sanctions already present in the penal code for this type of crime, which today amount to five years in prison and a fine of €15,000 (R$84,000). “Anyone who damages our artistic heritage cannot and must not get away with it,” Meloni said on social media.

The new fines may be applied shortly after each act, based on complaints from public officials, regardless of the outcome of future legal proceedings. “The attacks produce economic damage. Cleaning requires the intervention of specialized personnel and expensive machinery,” said the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, in a statement. According to him, who refers to the activists as “eco-vandals”, €40,000 was spent to clean the facade of the Senate.

In addition to the bill, which needs to be approved by Parliament, where the government has a majority, support base parties are preparing legislation against the activists, with texts adapted to recent acts.

In the Italian Senate, the League proposes the inclusion of “protective structures”, such as transparent boxes that surround works of art, in the description of crimes against cultural property. Another initiative, by the Brothers of Italy, calls for imprisonment of up to three years for anyone who defaces or stains public buildings and prohibits people accused of vandalism from approaching monuments for up to a year.

The opposition accuses the government of overreacting. “Instead of tackling the country’s major issues, from work to the climate, the government decides to introduce new crimes or toughen penalties, just to carry out its propaganda”, said deputy Eleonora Evi, from the Green and Left Alliance. “These damage [a bens culturais] are already punishable. We must do the opposite of exacerbating penalties: listen and open dialogue.”

Critics consider that the government’s response follows the hard-line approach also adopted against NGOs that provide aid to migrants in the Mediterranean Sea and with the anti-rave decree, which opened loopholes for the punishment of political protests – this ended up being rewritten and slowed down in the process in Parliament.

In operation for just over a year in Italy, the group Ultima Generazione, whose motto is “non-violent civil disobedience”, is part of the international network A22, which brings together a dozen climate activist movements, such as the German homonym Letzte Generation and the British Just Stop Oil (just stop with oil). The group is maintained by an international fund that concentrates donations.

In addition to Italy, the UK government also introduced a bill last year on new public order crimes, focusing on the tactics of climate activists. The text is pending in Parliament. In October, activists threw tomato soup on the glass protecting Van Vogh’s Sunflowers.

For Sandro Mora, spokesperson for Ultima Generazione, the hardening was already expected. Several activists have been denounced for the acts in Italy, and four lawsuits are ongoing. “We passed the phase of being ignored, ridiculed and we are in the phase of repression. Then comes the phase of listening to our demands, which are the same as those of the scientific community”, he told the Sheet.

According to the activist, the protests in Italy will continue, despite the tightening of laws, until the government signals the interruption of investments in fossil fuels. Among the G20 countries, Italy is the sixth – the first in Europe – in which more public financing occurs for fossil fuels, instead of energy from renewable sources.

In the German city of Hannover, the mayor struck a deal with Letzte Generation in February and obtained the suspension of protests in which activists glued themselves to the ground in streets, infuriating drivers. He announced support for the movement’s demands, such as lowering fares in the public transport system.

“Of course, the new measures worry us, but not to the point of giving up. More and more people are realizing the gravity of the climate crisis, which today translates into drought and lack of tap water, as is already happening in parts of Italy. scares more than the fines”, says Mora.