Tensions and unrest in Val di Susa, in the Turin area, where the most extremist wing of the No Tav movement attacked the police in San Didero, close to the construction site for the works of the new autoporto di Susa, a work connected to the Turin- Lyon. Twelve wounded in the police, hit by stones and paper bombs. The afternoon began with a procession that started from Venaus, during the Alta Felicità Festival, which sees the Askatasuna social center among the main promoters, of which some activists and leaders in these days have been indicted for criminal association, also for violent facts against construction sites Tav.
For some years the Festival has become a regular appointment, with debates, concerts and camping. New this year the presence for the first time of the activists of Fridays For Future and the Climate Social Camp, who went up to the valley from Turin, where the second European meeting of environmental movements took place these days. From Venaus about two thousand people marched in procession, opened by the banner “We are the nature that rebels”. Reached San Didero, while some of the demonstrators proceeded with a “beating” on the nets, about fifty No Tav with covered faces, with gas masks and protected by plexiglass shields, tried to pull down the barbed wire concertina and launched firecrackers and paper bombs against the police.
With a handcrafted concrete ram they attempted to break through the fence and gates of the construction site. There are two attacks: one at the gate on the side of the highway and one in the east, close to the highway. The police responded to the dense throwing of stones and explosive material with tear gas and fire hydrants. Protesters with tree trunks raised barricades, thus forcing the temporary closure of the A32 at Avigliana.
A fire broke out at the edge of the carriageway and was extinguished by the fire brigade. The motorway side was then cleared by the police. The reactions of the police and political unions were immediate, from Ruffino (Action), Montaruli (Fdi), Molteni and Rixi (Lega), Mandelli and Zangrillo (Fi). “The episodes of violence by antagonist No Tav fringes are intolerable” according to the mayor of Turin, Stefano Lo Russo. For Antonio Gurgigno, Sap national councilor, «against this violence we need a decisive intervention by the judiciary and a response from the institutions».
“For years the campsites and garrisons, which are the operational bases for subversive activities, had to be removed and banned,” comments Eugenio Bravo, secretary general of Siulp. The Undersecretary of Defense, Giorgio Mulè (Forza Italia), speaks of “unbearable continuity and repetitiveness of the attacks and violence”. For the deputies of the Lega Elena Maccanti and Alessandro Benvenuto, what happened today in San Didero is “a terrorist attack and this slice of territory must be restored to safety”. According to the coordinator of Forza Italia Paolo Zangrillo, “the situation is no longer tolerable, especially where Askatasuna is leading this subversive act. It is necessary to stop them ».