Mass protest in Rome over financial crisis

Apr 04, 2009 07:50AM EST
Gina Doggett

Several hundred thousand workers, pensioners, immigrants and students filled a Rome park on Saturday to protest the Italian government's handling of the financial crisis.

Led by Italy's largest union, the left-wing Italian General Confederation of Labour, many wore red hats or waved the CGIL's red flag as helicopters circled above.

"There's too big a gap between what needs to be done and what is being done," CGIL leader Guglielmo Epifani told the throng, with banners reading "Together to Build a Different Future" and "Down with the New Mussolini."

"It's a pleasure to see the park filled once more," he said, recalling a mass protest in 2002 that drew three million people to the same venue to protest a bill that would have annulled a law protecting against unfair dismissal.

That protest occurred under the last government of Silvio Berlusconi, who was elected to a third stint as prime minister last year.

Forty trainloads and nearly 5,000 buses as well as two ships ferried protesters to Rome from all over Italy, and they converged at Circo Massimo, an ancient hippodrome that is now a public park.

Opposition Democratic Party leader Dario Franceschini received a rock star welcome at the protest.

"It is a falsehood... to say that since the crisis is global the solutions can only be at an international level," he said. "The crisis must be faced with concrete measures taken by national governments."

Franceschini initially hesitated to attend because of divisions within the Italian union movement, notably over the CGIL's rejection of contract reforms approved by two smaller unions.

Berlusconi has accused the media of exaggerating the crisis and insisted that Italy is doing more than any other country to address the situation.

Italy went into recession in the third quarter of last year, and gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 1.0 percent for the year in the worst downturn since 1975.

Industry has been hard hit by the crisis, resulting in a spate of temporary layoffs. Job losses totalled some 370,500 in January and February, a 46 percent jump over the same period last year.

Some of Saturday's protesters chanted "Mister Obamaaaa ..." to mimic Berlusconi's antics at the Group of 20 group photo session in London on Thursday, when he called out loudly to the US president to get his attention.

One poster, merging Berlusconi's name with Obama's, proclaimed: "Berluscama, Yes You Can't."

Another, in a reference to the right-wing leadership's tough stance on crime, notably of Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno, read: "Make the City Safer," with an image of Berlusconi behind bars.

Epifani pledged that the CGIL would keep up the pressure, citing key dates such as the April 25 national day, Labour Day on May 1, and Republic Day on June 2.