Anti-lockdown protests spread to Italy after activists clash with police in Barcelona

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Anti-lockdown protests spread to Italy on Friday as protesters clashed with police after hundreds attended an unauthorised demonstration in Florence while hundreds more gathered in Bologna. 

At the same time, a similar event in Barcelona also descended into violence, with demonstrators throwing bricks at police and setting bins alight. 

The protests came as both Spain and Italy moved to introduce new measures to curb the spread of coronavirus amid a rising second wave of infections.  

Crowds in Florence’s historic centre chanted anti-government slogans and threw fireworks as they came up against police cordons. 

The demonstration came after Italy announced its third emergency measure in two week on Sunday.   

Under the new rules, gyms, swimming pools, cinemas and theaters will be closed, with bars and restaurants having to close at 6pm.

Non-essential movement between regions is also discouraged. 

Molotov cocktails were also thrown, according to Corriere Della Sera newspaper, which said the flames from the cocktails blackened the wall of a building. Vandals trashed bicycles and outdoor seating areas and sprayed walls of the city’s historic centre with graffiti. 

The paper reported that police eventually blocked the protesters into the Piazza della Repubblica square using cordons and armoured vehicles and that some sat on the ground chanting ‘Freedom, freedom’. 

Dario Nardella, the mayor of Florence urged citizens to abandon the demonstration and express their ‘anger and suffering’ in a peaceful and legal way. 

‘This is not how suffering is given voice. It is only violence for its own sake, gratuitous.

‘Whoever disfigures Florence must pay for what he has done,’ Nardella said.  

More than 300 people also gathered to protest the government decree in Bologna. 

The demonstration in the city ended without damage despite the presence of ultras of the Bologna Football Club 1909.

Others also came from outside Bologna to attend the rally in the city. 

Italy on Friday recorded 31,079 new infections and 199 deaths, bringing the total to have died from coronavirus in the country to 38,321. 

Friday night also saw clashes on the streets of Barcelona where protests over Spain’s state of emergency restrictions turned violent.

The demonstration began peacefully in St Jaume de Barcelona Square before descending into smaller violent clashes on Friday. 

At least two people have been arrested according to the Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalonia’s police force. 

Several hundred people from sectors badly affected by coronavirus, including restaurants, the arts and gyms initially gathered to protest regional border closures.

The measures came as Spain’s central government unveiled a state of emergency to give regional authorities powers to impose curfews and close their borders to anyone moving without just cause. 

Some protesters began pushing against police cordons and throwing flares and other objects at officers who then attempted to disperse demonstrators from the city centre, attendees told Spain’s El Pais newspaper.  

Police also hit protesters with batons and reportedly used foam bullets against those assembled outside the regional and local government headquarters. 

Dozens of protesters then separated into groups to narrow streets in Barcelona’s gothic quarter, setting trash containers on fire to serve as barricades.

A Mossos spokesman told AFP news agency that up to 700 protesters had attended the rally but the violence was started by a group of about 50.

Sirens wailed throughout the city centre as police sought to disperse the protesters and firefighters hosed down the streets to put out fires in several large wheelie bins. 

The call to protest had spread in social media with flyers. Rioting began within minutes of the gathering when some of the protesters removed their surgical masks and shouted ‘This is theft! This is a scam!’

Some protesters have accused authorities of lying about the seriousness of the outbreaks to justify curbs on personal freedom.

El Pais reported that some police sources blamed ‘radical groups’ linked to the nightlife and security sectors – both badly hit by the pandemic – with inciting violence at the rally and have accused them of intentionally setting out to provoke incidents.

Some people in attendance at the rally reportedly agreed that there were some elements in the crowd intent on causing trouble from the outset. 

Friday’s clashes mark the second violent protest in Barcelona in less than a week. Four people were arrested on Sunday after the Mossos intervened in a rally of protesters who deny the existence of Covid-19. 

It followed similar disturbances sparked by coronavirus deniers in Bilbao, in Spain, on Thursday and in cities across Italy on Monday. 

Spain, one of the hardest-hit countries by COVID-19, imposed a state of emergency this week to try halt the rise of coronavirus infections. It is expected to last until may next year. 

Like other European countries, Spain has resorted to increasingly drastic measures to curb infections, although less stringent than in Germany or France. 

Catalonia has seen some of the toughest measures introduced, with officials closing down the hospitality industry and imposing a 10pm to 6am curfew. All but essential weekend travel in and out of local areas has also been banned. 

Health Ministry data showed 25,595 new coronavirus infections confirmed on Friday, a new record that brings the total caseload since February to 1.18 million. 

The government last week admitted that the real tally, including missed cases, could be well over 3 million infections.

With 239 new fatalities, the total death toll rose Friday to 35,878.