A nationwide day of strikes and marches in Italy, which resulted in clashes with police, will not be enough to persuade Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to shift her position on recognising Palestine, the opposition leader has told The National.
Luigi Marattin, the leader of the centrist Liberal Democratic Party, said he believes that Italy is unlikely to recognise a Palestinian state unless Germany, Israel’s closest European ally, decides to do so.
“My impression is that probably Italy will also look at what Germany is doing. If Germany holds its position, then I think Prime Minister [Giorgia] Meloni will hold that position,” he said.
Tens of thousands of people protested across Italy on Monday in a day of action to “denounce the genocide in Gaza”, in scenes Mr Marattin described as “horrible”.
Police in riot gear fired tear gas to try to disperse people at the central station in Milan, as protesters, some dressed in black and others waving the Palestinian flag, used a pole to smash a window and hurled objects.
More than 10 people were arrested in the northern city and about 60 police officers were injured.
Israeli hardliners out
Mr Marattin condemned the violence against police officers but told The National that before his country could recognise Palestine, Israeli hardliners would need to be “out of the picture”.
“I would like some members of the Israeli government, [Bezalel] Smotrich and [Itamar] Ben-Gvir, voted out by the Israeli people because they are an obstacle to the peace process,” he said during a visit to the UK parliament.
He also agreed with the Arab League position that Hamas must also “be out of the picture” and that “we are very much in favour of a Palestinian state, but it has to happen at the right time” and should not reward extremism.
Mr Marattin strongly disagreed with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there would never be a Palestinian state, but suggested Britain and France’s move on recognition was a “mistake”.
“If you force things from one side, you can only cause the strengthening of the hard line in Israeli government, which is an obstacle to the peace process,” said the 46-year-old former economic adviser to prime minister Matteo Renzi.
General strike
Italy’s grass roots unions, which represent hundreds of thousands of people ranging from schoolteachers to metalworkers, had called for a 24-hour general strike in the public and private sectors, including public transport, trains, schools and ports. It caused disruption across the country, with long delays for national trains and limited public transport in major cities.
At the port in Venice, police used water cannon to help break up demonstrations. Workers also staged protests at ports in the cities of Genoa, Livorno and Trieste. The dockworkers said they were trying to prevent Italy from being used as a staging post for the transfer to Israel of arms and other supplies used in its war in Gaza.
Protesters halted traffic on a motorway near the city of Bologna before being dispersed by water cannon, while in Rome tens of thousands rallied outside the main train station before a march that blocked a major ring road.
In the southern city of Naples, there were skirmishes with police as crowds forced their way into the main railway station. Some of them briefly got on to the tracks, causing delays to services.
In Rome, police said an estimated 20,000 people, many of them students, gathered in front of the main Termini train station shouting “Free Palestine!” and holding up Palestinian flags.
Some had marched via the Colosseum, and those at the front were holding up a giant banner saying “Against Genocide. Let's block everything”.
Ms Meloni condemned the “outrageous images” and described the rioters as “self-proclaimed ‘pro-Pal’ individuals, self-proclaimed ‘antifa’ members, self-proclaimed ‘pacifists’” who were “wreaking havoc”.
She said the violence and destruction was nothing to do with solidarity and “would not change a single thing in the lives of people in Gaza, but will have concrete consequences for Italian citizens, who will end up suffering and paying for the damages caused by these thugs”.
Ms Meloni paid tribute to law enforcement officers “forced to endure the bullying and gratuitous violence of these pseudo-protesters”.
In the north-western city of Genoa, protesters among a crowd of several hundred people waved the Palestinian flag during gatherings around the port.
“The Palestinian people continue to give us yet another lesson in dignity and resistance,” said a protester in Genoa from a grass roots labour group called the Autonomous Port Workers' Collective.
The demonstrations were on the same day as France and other countries recognised a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, following recognition by the UK, Australia and Canada on Sunday.
Meloni's right-wing government is a traditional supporter of Israel within Europe, and has ruled out following those other western nations' lead on recognition.
Although it is ideologically close to US President Donald Trump, the government has condemned Israel's relentless assault on Gaza. It says it has not sold any Italian weapons to Israel since the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas inside Israel.
