Roberto Saviano rebukes violent demonstrators

The riots that broke out during the demonstrations against Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi have caused around 20 million euros in damage. But the violence has had even more nefarious consequences, writes author Roberto Saviano in the left-liberal daily La Repubblica: "Those who threw stones at the demonstration in Rome raised their hands against the demonstrators, and those who damaged cash dispensers hurt those who want a new country, a new political class and new ideas. Any violent gesture was an additional vote for the Berlusconi government in the no-confidence vote. Helmets, truncheons, burning cars, masked faces - all this is alien to those who want a different Italy. ... The government will resort to any means to deprive the movement against it of its legitimacy; it will try to terrorise youths and their parents with a clear message: If you send them on the street to protest they will return covered in blood and crazed by violence. ... We can't allow a few hundred idiots to take over a protest of thousands and thousands and ruin it."

» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » Social movements, » Unrest / Riots, » Society, » Italy
All available articles from » Roberto Saviano

» To the complete press review of Thursday, December 16, 2010