The events

Anti-war marches in Rome. Parolin: good the anti-war square

Unified opposition motion filed to revoke memorandum of understanding in the military sector and suspend military cooperation with Israel. Request for sanctions for violations of international law.

by Rome Editorial Staff

21 June 2025

Manifestazione contro le guerre e per la Palestina, promossa da Potere al Popolo, Usb, Cambiare Rotta e dal movimento studentesco palestinese a Roma. ANSA/MASSIMO PERCOSSI

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Double demonstration in Rome against rearmament and against 'genocide in Palestine'. The organising committee of Stop Rearm Europe 'No war rearmament genocide authoritarianism', which had the Colosseum as its arrival point, announced that there were 100,000 participants. Avs, M5s - who officially joined the demonstration - and some individual members of the PD also marched.

The organisers of the 'Disarm them' procession, from Potere al Popolo, Usb, the Palestinian student movement and Cambiare Rotta, spoke of 30,000 participants. A tank, made of cardboard boxes, with the EU flag, set on fire with smoke bombs. And then the bursting of firecrackers and the flag of Palestine set to wave over the statue of the Emperor Augustus in the Imperial Forum: this is how the procession ended.

Card. Parolin: the square against rearmament? Good to be there

Asked whether a call for peace-building could come from the square against rearmament, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, on the sidelines of a meeting in the context of the Jubilee of Rulers, replied: "It is good that there is a general mobilisation to avoid the arms race. It is part of the second appeal that the Pope has made: the first on debt conversion and then the one to set up a fund to eradicate hunger in the world using the proceeds destined for arms production,' he added.

Unitary motion of the oppositions

Opposition leaders Elly Schlein (Pd), Giuseppe Conte (M5S), Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli (both Avs) announce: 'The hostilities between Israel and Iran have catalysed the concern of world public opinion, diverting attention from the crimes against humanity taking place in Gaza and the Israeli plans for colonial annexation of the West Bank. We will not allow Italy to be tarnished by the cowardice of Meloni and her epigones. We have filed a united motion calling for the revocation of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Israeli government in the military and defence sector and the suspension of all military cooperation with Israel'.

Criticism of the government

"Avs, M5S and Pd have repeatedly urged the Meloni government - entrenched behind silent complicity with Netanyahu's criminal policies - to promote at the European level the request for sanctions against the Israeli government for the systematic violation of international law. In the face of the massacre of tens of thousands of civilians, however, the Meloni government has limited itself to a few words of circumstance, avoiding any concrete action that could point the finger at Netanyahu, we will not turn away, this massacre will not continue in our name," say the leaders of the PD, M5s and Avs.