‘Never again’: Giant Rome rally urges ban on extreme right

By AFP 16 October 2021, 8:43 pm

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An anti-fascist rally called by Italian Labour unions CGIL, CISL and UIL at Piazza San Giovanni in Rome, on October 16, 2021, a week after a demonstration against the so-called Green Pass degenerated into an assault on the CGIL trade union building, led by the neo-fascist Forza Nuova party. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP)

Tens of thousands of Italians call for a ban on the extreme right as they rally in Rome, after protests over a tough coronavirus pass regime last weekend degenerated into riots blamed on neofascists.

Carrying placards reading “Fascism: Never Again,” the protesters in Piazza San Giovanni — a square historically associated with the left — demand a ban on openly neofascist group Forza Nuova (FN).

FN leaders were among those arrested after the Rome headquarters of the CGIL trade union — Italy’s oldest — was stormed on October 9 during clashes outside parliament and in the historic center.

Today’s demonstration is being attended by some 200,000 people, organizers say, with 800 coaches and 10 trains bringing people to the capital for the event.

It coincided with the 78th anniversary of the Nazi raid on the Jewish Ghetto in Rome. Over 1,000 Jews, including 200 children, were rounded up at dawn on October 16, 1943 and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp.