Adnkronos Rome, June 17 (Adnkronos) – The appointment is at 14 pm, to test the torrid heat, at Porta San Paolo with a procession to the Colosseum. Over 400 groups have already joined the demonstration against rearmament next Saturday in Rome. Close to the NATO summit in The Hague. M5S and Avs will also be there with Giuseppe Conte, Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli.
The Democratic Party has not joined and secretary Elly Schlein is busy in Amsterdam at an event organized by the Greens and European Socialists. But Democratic exponents, such as Arturo Scotto, have already made it known that they will be in the square. Individual adhesions, it is explained. Which avoid new tensions with the bulk of the reformist front: in the vote in Europe on the Von der Leyen plan, the Democratic delegation was divided almost in half between those against and those who abstained.
But there are those who remain critical. Like the vice president of the European Parliament, Pina Picerno. "I think it's a bit difficult to confuse the work we are doing in Europe to improve the common security and defense plan - Picierno tells Adnkronos - with the adhesion, whatever the form, to a demonstration that radically contests its principles. It is a short circuit destined to undermine the credibility of our foreign policy and to isolate us from the context of choices that are being made".
Scotto, via social media, explains on the contrary why it is important to be in that square: "As the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein said, the path must be that of a common defense among European countries. Not the national rearmament that leads us to the darkest and most dangerous pages of the twentieth century. We are getting used to the idea that spending on weapons is more important than investing in hospitals, schools, culture".
A point of view shared by the 5 Star Movement in Europe: "Tomorrow the European Parliament will vote on the Muresan-Negrescu report that distorts its principles by transforming it from a Recovery Fund into a Military Fund. It is a betrayal of national interests. The 5 Star Movement will fight against this drift both in the parliamentary halls and in the streets, starting with the demonstration planned for Saturday in Rome against rearmament".
The leader of Azione, Carlo Calenda, when asked about the demonstration, speaks of a 'game of the squares': "We will not be at the demonstration on the 21st against European rearmament. It is all a game of the squares. We will not go to any square. God willing, I will take my daughter to the seaside". Others do not think so. Like the over 400 groups that have joined the initiative. "We have exceeded 440 adhesions to the national demonstration 'Stop rearm europe - No war, rearmament, genocide, authoritarianism'", say the Italian promoters of the European Campaign 'Stop Rearm Europe', Arci, Ferma il Riarmo (Sbilanciamoci, Rete Italiana Pace e Disarmo, Fondazione Perugia Assisi, Greenpeace Italia), Attac and Transform Italia.
The procession will end at the Colosseum where a flash mob is planned: "A 'die in' during which all participants - explain the promoters - will be invited to lie down on the ground with a shroud accompanied by the recording of the bombings on Gaza, to make visible, with our bodies, the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and the death and devastation that all wars bring".