Environmentalist blitz, four reported in Florence
Blitz of the movement’s environmentalists Extinction rebellion last night in the center of Florence, where the faces of some statues were covered with a papier-mâché mask representing a skull with branches instead of hair and an ‘x’ on the mouth.
Environmentalist blitz: four activists, three men and a woman aged between 26 and 60, residing in the provinces of Florence and Lucca, were denounced by the police for defacing assets of historical and artistic interest. According to reports, around 2.50 a citizen contacted 113 saying he saw four people depicting the statuesque General Manfredo Fanti in Piazza San Marco with a mask.
The activists were identified and stopped shortly after by the police, also thanks to the city surveillance cameras, while with the help of a stick they placed a similar mask on the head of the statue of Ferdinando I de ‘Medici, in Piazza Santissima Annunziata.
Shortly before, they had put another mask in Piazza San Lorenzo, on the head of the statue of Giovanni dalle Bande Nere. On the spot intervened agents of the flying squad and Digos. The statues were not damaged.
Extinction Rebellion was founded in 2018 in Great Britain but has since expanded to various countries, Italy included. The approach is the same everywhere: civil disobedience, nonviolent, and more or less spectacular demonstrative actions.
We ask them to explain to us why they have decided to make a personal commitment to the climate. “It affects us all. For example, I’m from Como and in the village next to mine yesterday there was another landslide, after the ones we have lived this summer. I have friends who have seen their house described, ”said Giacomo, 24, while distributing leaflets to passers-by. «For me, fighting is a necessity», explains Victoria, «I feel that the problems of our time are many and that they are all linked together: you can’t solve just one, you have to face them all». Fabio was also pushed into action by a similar sense of urgency: «I needed to do something more than just inform me. Before, I tried to talk about it above all with friends and acquaintances, but I realized that it wasn’t enough ». Giulia holds tightly to the sign that reads “The climate has already changed” and says: «I have decided to act because I am afraid. The alarming data and completely inadequate responses given by governments have made me lose faith in the future. I thought about it a lot and I decided not to have children. This is why I feel I have to give everything: it is not just my life that goes away ».