ROME (AP) – Italian restaurateurs and others angry at their business having been shut down for weeks due to a virus lockdown clashed with police on Tuesday in a protest outside parliament in Rome, while hundreds of protesters blocked a major highway in the south.
An officer was injured in the scuffle, Italian news agency LaPresse said. RAI state television said seven protesters were detained by the police.
Many in the crowd of several hundred protesters outside the Chamber of Deputies lowered their masks to say “Work!” and “Freedom!” Some hurled smoke flares or other objects.
Eating and drinking in restaurants, bars and cafes is currently prohibited at least until April. Only takeout or delivery services are allowed.
Officers have charged several protesters after trying to break a police cordon. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, members of a far-right political group joined the businessmen in the protest.
Among the protesters was Hermes Ferrari, who owns a restaurant in Modena, a city in northern Italy. He boasted that he defied authorities for months by opening his establishment to dinner parties in violation of government decisions.
Even as fines piled up, “I could pay my employees,” Ferrari said by keeping the company open.
Ferrari called out to fellow restaurateurs at the protest to follow his example.
“You have to open because no one can tell you to close,” he shouted.
Italy’s current and previous governments have allocated millions of euros in aid to categories particularly hard hit by pandemic constraints.
The entrepreneurs insist that they have to reopen permanently. Restaurants and cafes in regions with a lower incidence of cases and less critical hospital ICUs – the so-called yellow zones – are sometimes allowed to sit down to eat and drink for the evening.
But a current surge in infections, mainly driven by virus variants, has been driving new caseloads daily in the tens of thousands and hundreds of COVID-19 deaths per day for months. This prompted the Italian government to temporarily delete the yellow zone designation before the Easter holidays until the rest of April.
Interior Ministry Undersecretary Carlo Sibilia expressed his solidarity with the injured police officer, saying that “violence will not be tolerated.”
Still, Sibilia, of the populist five-star movement, called on the government, in addition to focusing on the introduction of vaccines, to “immediately provide new compensatory funds for economic activities closed or sanctioned by the recent restrictions.”
Sibilia pushed for state guarantees on loans, a moratorium on mortgage payments, an end to lending and compensation for lost earnings as a result of COVID-19 measures.
Hours earlier, near the southern town of Caserta, another protest blocked traffic on the A1 motorway. Among the hundreds of protesters were those working in open-air markets and owners of gyms and restaurants, Italian news agency LaPresse said. Gyms have been closed for months.
Home Secretary Luciana Lamorgese condemned it as unacceptable protests that turn violent or cause civil discomfort.
AP journalist Gordon Walker in Rome contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s full pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak