After the repulsive little pogrom of Campo de' Fiori the other night at the pub "The Drunken Ship" (which was ironically opened by a woman from Philadelphia 15 years ago with her Roman boyfriend at the time, who has since sold it, after a stint in an American university study abroad program. I don't frequent the place as I don't care for the clientele - mostly American university students and British football fans - though, unfortunately, I'm friends with a few of the new owners) all the public authorities, including the football ones, can be anything except be flabbergasted. Roma has been in the hands of the ultràs (neo-fascist football tifosi) by now for several years, ever since, look at the case, it's had the first right-wing mayor in the city's post-war history: Giovanni Alemanno, a "reformed" neo-fascist himself, who in his younger years was associated with extreme right-wing groups. No political past is really every permanently damning in Italy, as Alemanno's case demonstrates. One can have been a most fervent fascist in one’s youth, then become a most centrist conservative in one’s mature years and even, perhaps, get elected mayor of Rome. Then again there's a parliamentary figure with the name Mussolini (in fact il duce's granddaughter). But I digress.
As I have said: Roma has been in the hands of the ultràs for several years now. They have devastated the city on more than one occasion. They were able to have suspended a football derby (which means a match between the Roma and Lazio squadre), an incredible episode that has all but been forgotten, by giving orders to the pavid footballers of the two pavid team associations, while shutting-up the urban prefect (the prefect!). The ultràs of the Stadio Olimpico's two curves (north, Lazio and south, Roma) have been the not even too secret protagonists of diverse aggressions let's say "not football related;" from punitive fascist beatings, to homophobic violence, and now an anti-Semitic raid against the fans of Tottenham at Campo de' Fiori, about which the entire world is talking at this moment while branding the Italian capital with a label of incivility, of violence and racism that's unfortunately super merited.
I ask myself, not being a jurist, how much distant is the vile curriculum of the ultràs (not only Roman, obviously) from the crimes of an armed gang? It's enough to have the misfortune of running into, at an autogrill (Italian freeway pit stop), those motor coaches of gentlemen travelling to the distant match, to have the distinct impression of having to do with paramilitary organizations totally committed to plunder and pillage, to intimidation, to private violence. Until which point? How many more dead and wounded must we await?
PS: And imagine, while I am writing this, there are three protest marches getting under way this morning in Rome: 1. student, 2. COBAS (communist union) and 3., shamefully and frightfully, Casa Pound (a neo-fascist bunch of cretins). When these groups collide, Rome must hope that it doesn’t spark off something akin to Alaric and the Visigoths, if you get my meaning. The social tension in these parts is mounting and palpable. A time bomb waiting to explode.
As I have said: Roma has been in the hands of the ultràs for several years now. They have devastated the city on more than one occasion. They were able to have suspended a football derby (which means a match between the Roma and Lazio squadre), an incredible episode that has all but been forgotten, by giving orders to the pavid footballers of the two pavid team associations, while shutting-up the urban prefect (the prefect!). The ultràs of the Stadio Olimpico's two curves (north, Lazio and south, Roma) have been the not even too secret protagonists of diverse aggressions let's say "not football related;" from punitive fascist beatings, to homophobic violence, and now an anti-Semitic raid against the fans of Tottenham at Campo de' Fiori, about which the entire world is talking at this moment while branding the Italian capital with a label of incivility, of violence and racism that's unfortunately super merited.
I ask myself, not being a jurist, how much distant is the vile curriculum of the ultràs (not only Roman, obviously) from the crimes of an armed gang? It's enough to have the misfortune of running into, at an autogrill (Italian freeway pit stop), those motor coaches of gentlemen travelling to the distant match, to have the distinct impression of having to do with paramilitary organizations totally committed to plunder and pillage, to intimidation, to private violence. Until which point? How many more dead and wounded must we await?
PS: And imagine, while I am writing this, there are three protest marches getting under way this morning in Rome: 1. student, 2. COBAS (communist union) and 3., shamefully and frightfully, Casa Pound (a neo-fascist bunch of cretins). When these groups collide, Rome must hope that it doesn’t spark off something akin to Alaric and the Visigoths, if you get my meaning. The social tension in these parts is mounting and palpable. A time bomb waiting to explode.