by Thomas Lifson
Riots began Monday in Turin and spread to other Italian cities
Europeans are in open rebellion over the reimposition of harsh anti-Coronavirus lockdown measures. Severe limits on personal freedoms have failed to arrest the spread of the China virus in Italy and Spain, as positive tests for the virus have surged in both nations after relaxing the measures imposed last spring. The Financial Times reports:
The governments of Italy and Spain, the European countries hardest hit by the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, announced sweeping measures on Sunday to combat a surge in the number of new cases.
Italy said it would introduce the harshest public health restrictions since the end of its first national lockdown in May as new coronavirus cases hit a fresh daily record. Spain announced a nationwide curfew and triggered emergency powers after the country’s infection rate jumped by almost a third over the past week.
Giuseppe Conte, Italian prime minister, said that starting from Monday all bars and restaurants across the country would have to close by 6pm. Under the proposed measures, to remain in place for a month, schools and workplaces will remain open.
Gyms, swimming pools, theatres and cinemas will close, and Italians are “strongly recommended” not to leave their immediate areas apart from for studying, work or health reasons.
Riots began Monday in Turin and spread to other Italian cities. The BBC reports:
Clashes were reported in the northern cities such as Turin, where petrol bombs were thrown at officers.
In Milan tear gas was used to disperse protesters, and thousands of people gathered in the centre of Naples.
The demonstrations began soon after the national government's order to close restaurants, bars, gyms and cinemas came into effect at 18:00 local time.
Many regions have also imposed night-time curfews - including Lombardy, where Milan is, and Piedmont, where Turin is. The violence was blamed on extremist agitators and police said 28 people had been arrested in Milan alone.
Protests took place in about a dozen other cities, including Rome, Genoa, Palermo and Trieste. Taxi drivers occupied a central square in Turin while restaurant owners beat pots and pans in the centre of Cremona.
In Naples, a big crowd gathered in the central Piazza del Plebiscito, many calling on the regional governor to resign.
Clashes were reported in the northern cities such as Turin, where petrol bombs were thrown at officers.
In Milan tear gas was used to disperse protesters, and thousands of people gathered in the centre of Naples.
The demonstrations began soon after the national government's order to close restaurants, bars, gyms and cinemas came into effect at 18:00 local time.
Many regions have also imposed night-time curfews - including Lombardy, where Milan is, and Piedmont, where Turin is. The violence was blamed on extremist agitators and police said 28 people had been arrested in Milan alone.
Protests took place in about a dozen other cities, including Rome, Genoa, Palermo and Trieste. Taxi drivers occupied a central square in Turin while restaurant owners beat pots and pans in the centre of Cremona.
In Naples, a big crowd gathered in the central Piazza del Plebiscito, many calling on the regional governor to resign.
YouTube screengrab
Spain also saw riots:
There were also clashes in Spain last night as hundreds gathered in Barcelona to protest the Spanish and Catalan governments’ latest coronavirus restrictions.
Protesters set fire to bins and lit flares in the street to demonstrate against curfews.
Rioting resumed Tuesday night, though there is scant coverage from our media, other than Fox News. With Joe Biden endorsing a national mask mandate and discussing a national lockdown, media committed to his victory are loath to let Americans know that citizens in Europe are in open rebellion over such measures that have already failed. The New York Times did manage to run a piece based on wire service reports, but absurdly claimed, “Hundreds of demonstrators in several Italian cities protested new government coronavirus restrictions on Monday,” which would yield dozens per city. Even the Daily Beast managed to admit:
Thousands of angry Italians took to the streets of Turin, Milan, Naples, Palermo, and Rome on Monday night to protest the early closing of bars and restaurants and the shuttering of gyms and theaters as the country slips further into chaos as it tries to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Perhaps the European rioters are aware that their northern neighbors in Sweden have avoided severe lockdowns and now have lower fatality rates than Italy and Spain as herd immunity, the only way to permanently stop, not merely delay, the disease’s spread, is developing rapidly. Meanwhile, Sweden’s economy is far healthier and life is closer to normal.
Other European countries using the lockdown strategy are also faltering, as CTV reports:
All of Europe is grappling with how to halt a fall resurgence of the virus before its hospitals become overwhelmed again.
Nightly curfews have been implemented in French cities. Schools must close at 6 p.m. Schools have been closed in Northern Ireland and the Czech Republic. German officials have ordered de-facto lockdowns in some areas near the Austrian border and new mask-wearing requirements are popping up weekly across the continent, including a nationwide requirement in Russia.
"We would all like to live like before, but there are moments where you have to make tough decisions," French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Tuesday as the government held emergency meetings on the pandemic.
Yet in this new round of restrictions, governments are finding a less compliant public, even as the continent has seen over 250,000 confirmed deaths in the pandemic and last week recorded 46% of the world's new infections, according to the World Health Organization.
Over the weekend, police used pepper spray against protesters angry over new virus restrictions in Poland. Spanish doctors staged their first national walkout in 25 years on Tuesday to protest poor working conditions.
In Britain, anger and frustration at the government's uneven handling of the pandemic has erupted into a political crisis over the issue of hungry children.
A grown-up response to the pandemic would recognize that viruses cannot be stopped from spreading virally, and that after preventing health care facilities from being overwhelmed with “15 days to slow the spread” (remember that?), the focus must be on effective therapies to help those infected recover and spread herd immunity at the lowest possible cost in deaths and serious illness, and to develop a potential vaccine. Lockdowns alone only delay the spread and impose horrific costs that cannot be sustained.
But our media and its Democrat party subsidiary see the pandemic as their golden opportunity to blame President Trump for any and all deaths, and thereby defeat him. If people die because hydroxychloroquine was demonized and even forbidden in some states, that seems to be an acceptable price.
Thomas Lifson
Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/10/antilockdown_riots_convulse_italy_as_resistance_spreads_in_europe.html
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