2013 Italian social protests

Turin

Ventimiglia

Savona

Milan

Conegliano

Treviso

Padua

Venice

Vicenza

Bologna

Florence

Rome

Palermo

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Locations of the protests

In 2013, protests occurred in many parts of Italy, starting on 15 November and ending on 18 December although several protests continued until February.

Usual targets have been the government, high taxation, red tape, established parties, the European Union, the Euro, the Common Agricultural Policy, and Globalization.^[7] The protesters' goals include the overthrow of Enrico Letta's government, the resignation of President Giorgio Napolitano and the dissolution of Parliament. Some went so far as to propose the formation of a military junta to lead the country out of Eurozone.^[8][9]

The whole protests, including rallies, demonstrations and blockades of highways and rail service, were dubbed by journalists Pitchfork protests^[10][11][12] from the name of one of the leading participants: the Sicilian-based "Pitchforks Movement", which has been active in Sicily since 2011 and was characterised by an autonomist streak.^[13] In the 2012 Sicilian regional election the Pitchforks supported either Mariano Ferro (candidate for "People of Pitchworks") or Cateno De Luca (candidate for "Sicilian Revolution"),^[14] who both hailed from the Movement for the Autonomies and received a combined 2.5% of the vote.^[15]

Several groups, sometimes in conflict one with another, have animated protests, benefiting from a loose or non-existent coordination. They included a diverse bunch of groups: the original Pitchfork Movement, associations of truck drivers, environmental activists, farmers, entrepreneurs, unemployed people, football fans, minor political parties (including New Force and CasaPound, two far-right movements), and a plethora of local groups.^[7] The European Federalist Free Entrepreneurs (LIFE), a libertarian and mainly Venetian nationalist^[16] organization led by Lucio Chiavegato (a former president of Veneto State), has been playing a big role in Veneto.^{[17][18][19][20]}

The committee which organized the first protests, the "National Coordination 9 December 2013",^[21] was led by Mariano Ferro, Lucio Chiavegato and Danilo Calvani (a farmer from Lazio).^[22]

In December 2013, Pitchfork spokesman Andrea Zunino claimed that Italy was a "slave" to Jewish bankers; this anti-Semitic remark was widely condemned.^[23][24] As a result of this and of neo-fascist infiltrations, Ferro and Chiavegato, who distanced himself from neo-fascists and Italian nationalists, decided not to take part to the 18 December demonstration in Rome.^[25]

In March 2014 Chiavegato announced that the 9 December Movement had been dissolved and that he would concentrate again on Veneto only.^[26]

In April, Chiavegato and other leading members of the LIFE were arrested, along with other Venetian separatists (including Franco Rocchetta and two members of the Venetian Most Serene Government), for suspected crimes including criminal association for terrorism and subversion of the democratic order.^[27] Chiavegato, who endured a 17-day hunger strike in jail,^[28][29] was released on 18 April, along with Rocchetta and most of the others, as the tribunal of Brescia did not uphold the accusations.^[30][31]