Anti-war demonstrations held in Italy on Republic Day
Max Civili
Press TV, Rome
Anti-war demonstrations were held in Italy with protesters calling on the government to stop sending weapons to Ukraine and leave NATO.
It came as the Italian authorities were celebrating the 76h anniversary of the Republic.
June 2 is the day Italy celebrates becoming a Republic. On this day, in a referendum held in 1946, Italians opted to abolish the country's short-lived monarchy and adopt a Republican form of government.
Every year, the celebrations feature large military and official parades along with the ancient Roman Forum in the presence of the highest offices of the State.
Never before have controversies over the military parade been this contentious with anti-war demonstrations held in a number of Italian cities including Bologna, Padua, and Bari.
One of the anti-war protests was held in central Rome, 500 meters away from the Republic day celebrations. The initiative had been called by the base union USB and political party Power to the People.
Since the start of the Ukraine conflict, opinion polls have steadily shown over half of the Italians oppose sending weapons to Kiev and believe sanctions against Russia are useless.
The protesters are angered not only over Mario Draghi government’s military spending on Ukraine, which they say would be better spent on raising workers’ wages. They are also opposing officials’ decision to raise military expenditure from 1.4 to 2% of the country's GDP.
According to studies carried out by a number of Italy-based think tanks, Italians have never been eager to increase defense expenditures.
Based on data from the 1950s to date, on average, less than 20% of respondents believe that military spending is too low or should be increased.
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