Today in the square against rearmament: M5s and Avs protest, distinguation in the Pd

Left in the square again against the European rearmament plan. And with the core of the alternative almost complete: there will be M5s president Giuseppe Conte and Avs leaders Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli. Elly Schlein will not be there - due to international commitments already made - but the Pd will participate with 'some of its exponents'. Less profound adhesion, but not taken for granted. Because the issue has always divided the party. And the democrats, to avoid political splits, have preferred to leave 'freedom of adhesion', so to speak.

The demonstration, promoted by a number of associations - there are 430 among networks, social, trade union and political organisations including Arci, Acli and various NGOs - will start at 2pm from Piazzale Ostiense heading to the Colosseum (where it will end with a flash mob with participants lying on the ground on a shroud to remember the dead in Gaza). About five thousand participants are expected.

Among those in the Democratic Party who have joined the Stop the Rearm parade are MP Arturo Scotto and MEPs Marco Tarquinio and Cecilia Strada. "I will parade with the worlds I come from,' says the daughter of Emergency's founder, 'and who are asking for the things I am also asking for: stop the massacre in Gaza, stop the logic of war, invest in peace. In the PD,' she adds, 'they are all against the EU Rearm "except for a few who make it known to the whole world. A jab at the party's reformists who instead speak of a 'mistaken' demonstration. This is how one 'mystifies the delicate situation we are experiencing', points out senator Filippo Sensi, who says he is 'reassured' by the PD's lack of official adhesion. The reformists, in fact, do not recognise themselves in the clear statement that animates Saturday's procession. The first three words leave no room for mediation: Stop Rearm Europe.

But this will not be the only initiative on Saturday afternoon in Rome. Another procession, organised by Potere al Popolo, the Palestinian student movement and Cambiare Rotta, will also parade through the streets of the centre. Here, too, they are aiming for a turnout of 5,000 people who will move from Piazza Vittorio towards Largo Corrado Ricci, at the Fori Imperiali.

The two rallies are part of the week of European mobilisation on the occasion of the NATO summit in The Hague, which records Giuseppe Conte's appeal to EU progressives. The Pentastellist leader, who is aiming for an EU no-Rearm coordination, points out that he is 'not anti-NATO', even if the Dem Pina Picierno apostrophises him calling him 'leader of a social centre'.