Virtus-Maccabi, urban guerrilla warfare in Bologna: firecrackers against officers, water cannons on Pro Pal protesters

While the Euroleague basketball match between Virtus and Maccabi Tel Aviv was being played at the PalaDozza in Bologna, guerrilla warfare broke out in the city centre: paper bombs, fire hydrants, smoke bombs, rubbish bins and material from the construction sites for the tram were used to build barricades. This was the end of the week-long protest in Bologna that provoked a bitter clash between the municipality, which wanted to postpone or move the match to another part of the city, and the government, which, with Minister Matteo Piantedosi, decided that the match would still be played.

Several thousand people, at least five thousand, gathered in Piazza Maggiore to try and make their way to PalaDozza, which is just over a kilometre from the city's main square. The area around the Palazzetto dello Sport was surrounded by a large red zone that, since 1pm, allowed access only to residents and season ticket or ticket holders to attend the match.

The procession advanced compactly as far as the entrance to Via Lame, one of the streets leading to the PalaDozza where the police were deployed: around 8pm, just before the match started, the demonstrators began throwing paper bombs, the police responded by activating water cannons. There were no contacts or charges, but at that point the situation became very chaotic: the procession split into several sections, followed by the police.

Guerrilla warfare broke out in various parts of the city, with dumpsters set on fire and used to build barricades along the streets, along with building material from the tram construction sites. Some construction sites, those closest to the PalaDozza, had been cleared by the municipality, but in this period Bologna is full of them: from there many protesters took stones, sticks, barriers, even chemical toilets. Many dumpsters were set on fire. Numerous parked cars were damaged. The police used water cannons in numerous situations and fired tear gas to disperse the protesters and prevent them from approaching the PalaDozza.

In fact, a large section of Bologna's city centre was transformed into a scene of urban guerrilla warfare, just as Virtus was challenging Maccabi Tel Aviv at the sports hall in a surreal atmosphere and with many empty seats. Also because access to the match required people to arrive well in advance, also having to go through the filtering set up by the Questura and Prefecture. It was also an evening of inconvenience for the businesses (almost all closed) and for the inhabitants of the area: many, especially students, complained that they were unable to return home, as they were not residents of Bologna. An evening of guerrilla warfare that, with the related damage count, seems destined to reignite the controversy, with fierce exchanges of accusations especially between the municipality, which had asked to move the match for reasons of public order, and the government.