[ad_1]
“We are one step away from tragedy,” Vincenzo De Luca, president of the Campania region of southern Italy, said in a video on Facebook on Friday. And then he spoke about the new measures in the fight against the further spread of the corona virus: on the one hand, about the curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., which came into effect on Friday, and, on the other hand, about plans to a new closure. “Now we will close everything,” De Luca said, except the companies that produce and transport important goods. The latest data showed that the measures imposed so far had no effect, De Luca said. “We have to make one last attempt to control things.”
The shutdown could take a month or 40 days, De Luca said. The regional decree to implement the measure will be approved on Saturday or Sunday, the Ansa news agency reported, citing regional government circles. Luca also asked the government of Rome to impose a nationwide blockade.
The reactions of the population to the announcements were sometimes violent: hundreds of people protested overnight in the Campania capital, Naples, against the curfew and the planned closure of the region. There were real street fights. The protesters chanted slogans and, among other things, moved in front of the regional government headquarters. They launched fireworks and detonated smoke bombs, Ansa reported.
According to Rainews24, stones were also thrown at the police. “Naples is a tinderbox again,” the news channel’s website said. According to Ansa, the police used tear gas against the protesters.
Chancellor Di Maio: “There is no excuse for this violence”
The regional president, De Luca, harshly condemned the riots in a Facebook post: “A few hundred criminals have tarnished the image of the city,” the regional president wrote. It was an outrageous display of violence and organized guerrilla action. He made it clear that he would not deviate from his strict line. “There is no excuse for this violence,” wrote Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on his Facebook profile. Nothing that happened during the night is “acceptable.” “No one should be allowed to attack women and men in the police force.” He also included a video in his post showing the riots.
The Vice Minister of the Interior, Matteo Mauri, issued a statement condemning the “urban guerrilla” and the attacks on the police. “It is absolutely clear that this was not a spontaneous protest, but a deliberate act organized almost exclusively by fringe groups, criminal groups and political extremists,” Mauri said. “What happened last night in Naples is extremely serious,” he added.
The news website Fanpage accused members of the local Camorra mafia and the hardcore hooligans of Naples of having sparked the protests, which were also supported by the neo-fascist Forza Nuova party. “Let Naples be the first city to rise up against the dictatorship of health,” said Forza Nuova boss Roberto Fiore.
Increase in new infections by 50 percent
Campania is experiencing a sharp increase in coronavirus infections. On Friday, 2,280 new cases were registered, an increase of almost 50 percent from the previous day. Thursday was 1541. Campania is one of the two regions with the most new infections in Italy. More recently, there were only more in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, where there were 4,916 new infections on Friday. Due to current data, it is necessary to stop “mobility between regions and municipalities,” De Luca said.
With infections on the rise in Italy, not just Campania, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government is under increasing pressure to take stricter measures to contain the virus. The official number of new corona virus infections in Italy reached a record 19,143 on Friday. This brings the total number of infections since the start of the pandemic to 484,869. The number of deaths related to Covid 19 disease increased by 91 to 37,059. Currently, more than a thousand people are receiving intensive care.
The administration of the capital city in Rome has already announced the closure of popular gathering places on weekend nights to avoid crowds. On Fridays and Saturdays from 9pm to midnight, places like Campo de ‘Fiori, Piazza Trilussa, Piazza Madonna de’ Monti and Via del Pigneto must remain closed. Similar measures already exist in Turin, Genoa and Palermo.
