Thousands join Five Star Party rally in Rome against the EU's rearmament plan

Thousands of people took to the streets of Rome on Saturday in response to the Five Star Movement’s call to protest the European Union’s rearmament plan.

“Unexpected numbers, beyond all expectations,” commented the organisers of the demonstration, which began at Piazza Vittorio and made its way to the Fori Imperiali. According to sources within the Five Star Movement, attendance could reach 100,000.

Kicking off the march, Five Star Movement leader and former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte criticised Giorgia Meloni’s government and the rearmament plan proposed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Conte: 'A firm no to the 800 billion to rearm Europe.'

“Today comes a strong and clear no to the squandering of 800 billion to rearm Europe, a folly,” Conte said and added: “Giorgia Meloni approved Europe’s rearmament plan without any mandate, and this is another failure of her government that will remain in history.”

“I am happy that the main opposition forces are present today because today we are laying a solid pillar to the construction of a government alternative. The Meloni government has sold out Italy to the needs of Germany on a project that will further disintegrate Europe and this is another failure of hers.” The demonstration was attended by members of the Green-Left Alliance and a delegation from the Democratic Party, including the leader of the Dem senators Francesco Boccia.

“We are here today because here is a piece of opposition to the right-wing government that has isolated us in Europe, which has no strategy to react to the tariffs other than hoping to go with hat in hand to deal with Trump. And together with all the oppositions, we want to send home the government of Giorgia Meloni and Salvini,” Boccia said. PD secretary Elly Schlein did not attend the rally, because she reportedly did not agree on everything but only on some points. The centrist parties Azione and Italia Viva were also missing.

Also on the stage in Via dei Fori Imperiale were 5-Star Movement Vice-President Paola Taverna and former Chamber President Roberto Fico. “This is our square. It is the square of our identity and our pride. With democracy we build peace. Today we oppose the wicked policy of rearmament. It is throwing away the future of us all. Being here means resisting and building.”

“We are very pacifist, we are naturally here and we see this as an important step to create the alternative to the government,” said Nicola Fratoianni of the Green-Left Alliance. “I hope that in the near future there can be an initiative, a mobilisation that sees us all together to multiply our peoples put together because the time has come to change and turn the page,” added Angelo Bonelli.

Tajani: 'Security means defending our borders.'

Criticism of the demonstration came from Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. “I don’t understand what the M5s want, they want peace but Conte in government gave more money for defence,” Tajani said during his closing speech at the party’s National Council underway at the Palazzo dei Congressi in Rome.

“I would like all those who are demonstrating today too,” Tajani added, “to realise that making citizens safer is a service that politics must render to the country, because security is not the cannons to make who knows what wars. Security means defending our borders, defending our families, defending the territorial unity of Italy, defending our economy, defending our industries.”

“Because we cannot allow industrial secrets to be stolen, industrial data to be stolen, citizens’ data to be stolen. Cybersecurity is also this. It also means having more efficient and more modern infrastructure,” the minister concluded.