{"id":421209,"date":"2025-03-13T13:16:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T12:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/03\/13\/manifestazione-europa-serra-marzo-litalia\/"},"modified":"2025-03-13T14:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T13:50:10","slug":"here-we-make-europe-or-we-die-italy-takes-to-the-streets-for-the-eu-on-march-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/03\/13\/here-we-make-europe-or-we-die-italy-takes-to-the-streets-for-the-eu-on-march-15\/","title":{"rendered":"“Here we make Europe, or we die:” Italy takes to the streets for the EU on March 15"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels –\u00a0These are moments of uncertain times for\u00a0our continent. Amid rearmament, tariffs, and conflicts, Italian and European citizens feel disoriented; they look for answers, demanding decisive, united action: doing something together. As often happens in times of trouble, this general sense of bewilderment has turned the appeal of an individual into something bigger, a demonstration in favor of the unity and freedom of the European Union. The appointment is on\u00a0Saturday, March 15<\/strong>, for the initiative\u00a0Una Piazza per l’Europa<\/strong> (A Square for Europe)\u00a0\u200bin Piazza del Popolo<\/strong> in Rome and dozens of other Italian cities. It will be\u00a0a non-partisan demonstration<\/strong>, with only European flags for\u00a0all citizens who wish to say yes to the EU.<\/p>\n

The initiative, which grew rapidly as the days went by, started from an appeal that\u00a0journalist Michele Serra<\/strong>\u00a0launched in the pages of Repubblica in a Feb. 22 editorial<\/a>\u00a0entitled “Say something European.” “I wondered why not organize a large demonstration of citizens for Europe, its unity, and its freedom,\u00a0with zero\u00a0party flags, only European flags. Something that says, with the sometimes unrelenting power of slogans, ‘Here we make Europe, or we die<\/strong>,'” Serra later explained.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Michele Serra (photo: Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Italian mayors immediately welcomed the proposal, with Roberto Gualtieri<\/strong> making himself available to host it in the Capital<\/a>. ANCI<\/strong> national president and mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, relaunched the idea, proposing to expand the event to all Italian municipalities, garnering the endorsement of fifteen mayors<\/strong> from different sides, including Beppe Sala (Milan), Stefano Lo Russo (Turin), Matteo Lepore (Bologna), Sara Funaro (Florence), Roberto Lagalla (Palermo), Massimo Zedda (Cagliari), Vito Leccese (Bari) and Luigi Brugnaro (Venice). The event will also see parallel demonstrations in\u00a0Brussels<\/strong> at Place da l’Albertine<\/strong>, where at 3:30 pm,\u00a0political, trade union, and civic groups\u00a0will gather, including the Democratic Party (PD) circle and pro-European associations such as Tutti Europa 2030 and Associazione Giuseppe Mazzini.<\/p>\n

Matteo Renzi<\/strong> of Italia Viva, Carlo Calenda<\/strong> of Azione, Elly Schlein<\/strong> of the PD, Giorgio Mul\u00e8 of Forza Italia, and Pier Ferdinando Casini of Centrists for Europe were among the first to announce\u00a0that they would be there, agreeing not to show party flags and symbols. In Piazza del Popolo, there will be Legambiente, Agesci, Legacoop, and the Community of Sant’Egidio, as well as\u00a0+Europa<\/strong>, the LGBTQ+ associations, and, to no small protest from the grassroots, the CGIL, Cisl, and Uil trade unions which will reiterate “the importance of defending the common European project and the democratic foundations on which it is based.” ANPI\u00a0<\/strong>will reaffirm its support for a peaceful Europe,\u00a0rejecting\u00a0the Rearm Europe plan by mobilizing its delegations throughout the country.<\/p>\n

Despite numerous endorsements, fractures<\/strong> are emerging within the center-left regarding participating in the event. Alliance Greens and Left (AVS) supported\u00a0the initiative but with some clarifications. Angelo Bonelli and Nicola Fratoianni<\/strong> said they joined the call for the square but stressed the need to emphasize their position: no to spending on arms, yes to social spending. During yesterday’s (March 12) protest<\/a> in Strasbourg, Giuseppe Conte\u00a0<\/strong>lashed out against the initiative, saying the 5-Star Movement\u00a0would not take to the square<\/strong>: “Today, demonstrating for this Europe means demonstrating for this rearmament plan. Citizens cannot be subjected to the ‘ambiguity of a square where so many exponents will carry the flags of the war economy.”<\/p>\n

The center-right<\/strong> was more critical. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani<\/strong> (Forza Italia) said:\u00a0“There must be support for Europe but with concrete reforms, not symbolic events.” The position of some members of Fratelli d’Italia, who see the initiative as a belated and superficial response to the challenges the EU faces, was harsher. Minister Guido Crosetto commented: “Waving a flag is not enough to make Europe stronger. We need serious policies on common defense, energy, and industry.” Matteo Salvini<\/strong>, secretary of the League, chose a more confrontational<\/strong>\u00a0stance: “While some people\u00a0 demonstrate with flags, we work to change this Europe, which today crushes workers, farmers, and entrepreneurs with absurd rules.”<\/p>\n

Also among the most critical is the initiative<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0Potere al Popolo<\/strong>, which said it would organize a counter-demonstration <\/strong>“against the warmongers” in Rome’s Piazza Barberini on Saturday: “The ‘Serra’ effect harms peace,” is the slogan of the event.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“A Square for Europe.” On Saturday, mayors, unions, and associations in Rome and several Italian cities. Demonstrations also in Brussels. Parties are divided on membership, as the issue of rearmament weighs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7883,"featured_media":421194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26810,29181],"class_list":["post-421209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-news-europe-and","tag-manifestation-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7883"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421209"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421241,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421209\/revisions\/421241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}