Demonstration in Rome against the war in Gaza

Euronews

11 hours ago

The march, organised in Rome by the opposition forces Partito Democratico (Democratic Party), Movimento 5 Stelle (M5s) and Alleanza Verdi Sinistra Italiana (Avs), started from Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II and finished before the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano.
Tens of thousands of people, according to the organisers, marched waving Palestine, peace and party flags and anti-war placards. But a number of Israel and peace flags with the Star of David in the centre could also be seen, symbolising the demonstrators' support for a two-state solution.
The banner reading "Gaza stop the massacre. Enough complicity" opened the procession, behind a stream of people arriving from all over Italy. According to the local authorities, at least ten thousand people lined the streets of Rome, thousands more were in the square where the procession ended.
Leading the demonstration were the leaders of the three parties, Giuseppe Conte for the M5s, Elly Schlein for the PD and for Avs, Angelo Bonelli and Nicola Fratoianni. As soon as the rally started, the demonstrators sang the partisan fight song 'Bella ciao' together with the politicians. Further behind rose the choruses 'Free Palestine', 'We are all Palestinians', 'Free free Palestine'.
Several demonstrators waved placards against Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu. One demonstrator carried a photo of the two leaders, juxtaposing it with a portrait of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.
Some demonstrators also carried a white cloth on with small dolls wrapped in white cloths covered in blood, symbolising the children victims of the Israeli attacks in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters, PD secretary Schlein said: "It is a huge response of participation to say enough to the massacre of Palestinians and the crimes of the Netanyahu government. It is another Italy that does not remain silent, as the Meloni government does. It is an Italy that wants the recognition of the Palestinian state and this is the Italy we want".
"This is the square of humanity against the systematic extermination that has been going on for twenty months, starting with the Italian government that is pretending not to see and is still babbling,' said Conte of the M5s.
This was not the only demonstration to end the war in Gaza. Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva and Carlo Calenda's Azione parties organised the meeting 'Two peoples, two states, one destiny' at the Parenti theatre in Milan on Friday.
The second demonstration arose after a disagreement between the two centrist parties and the organisers of the procession in Rome, because Italia Viva and Azione had requested a reference to anti-Semitism in the manifesto. This request was refused by Avs, M5s and Pd, because they considered the condemnation of the 7 October 2023 massacre carried out by Hamas in Israel to be already clear.
In recent days, deputy minister Matteo Salvini criticised the opposition for organising the event in Rome on the eve of the referendum on work and citizenship. "I hope that no one will use the deaths in Gaza to push people to go and vote", Salvini said.
The European commission on Saturday denied German media reports that it had signed 'secret contracts' with environmental NGOs to promote the bloc's climate policy.
'Contrary to media allegations, there are no secret contracts between the European Commission and NGOs,' a commission spokesperson told Euronews. 'The Commission exercises a high degree of transparency when it comes to providing funding to NGOs.
The commission's denial comes after German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag claimed that the EU's Executive arm had allegedly secretly paid environmental NGOs up to €700,000 to promote the bloc's climate policy.
The paper said it got hold of 'secret contracts' from 2022, which involved well-known NGOs like 'ClientEarth,' and 'Friends of the Earth.'
In the Welt Am Sonntag claims, the former allegedly 'received €350,000 'and was supposed to 'entangle German coal-fired power plants in court cases in order to increase the operators' financial and legal risk,' the paper said.
The paper also reported that EC officials commissioned the latter to fight against the Mercosur free trade agreement between Europe and South America – 'even though colleagues in their own house were pushing it forward at the same time,' the paper reported.
In its statement to Euronews on Saturday, the European Commission underlined that 'NGOs play a crucial role in shaping, monitoring, and enforcing legislation. NGOs also remain fully autonomous and free to establish their own views on all policy matters.'
The German report comes at a time when the issue of NGO funding has become an extremely divisive political issue in Brussels. The conservative European People's Party (EPP) has claimed that the Commission instructed NGOs to lobby members of the parliament to further specific policies within the Green Deal, a central political agenda of president Ursula von der Leyen's first term between 2019 and 2024.
MEP Monika Hohlmeier (Germany/EPP), told Euronews back in January that her concerns were raised when she examined some 30 funding contracts from 2022 and 2023, as part of the parliament's annual scrutiny of EU budget spending.
In January, Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin conceded that some financing from the EU's €5.4 billion environmental programme LIFE may have been inappropriate. 'I have to admit that it was inappropriate for some services in the Commission to enter into agreements that oblige NGOs to lobby members of the European Parliament specifically,' he said. But he also defended the role of NGOs in EU policy making.
In April, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) also concluded following a lengthy probe that the Commission's funding of NGOs was 'opaque' and exposed the executive to 'reputational risk.' But the court did not find any breach of EU values from NGOs.
To overcome ambiguities, the European Commission issued clear guidance last year to streamline how it provides funding to NGOs.
On Saturday, the commission spokesperson told Euronews that EU funding to NGOs was provided 'based on grant agreements, which are complemented by work programmes whose preparation falls under the responsibility of NGOs.'
'As per the guidance, the Commission has instructed its services not to sign off on work programmes if those contain overly specific activities directed at EU institutions or their representatives,' the EC statement added.
The institution will take 'further measures,' the spokesperson said, to strengthen transparency and include appropriate safeguards.
'We have been working closely with the European Parliament and the European Court of Auditors to improve this transparency even further. Information on recipients of EU funding, including the names of recipients and amounts, is publicly available on the Commission´s Financial Transparency System website,' the statement said.