San Benedetto (Ascoli), July 13, 2026 – The police are almost ready to report to the Prosecutor’s Office about what happened Saturday night in San Benedetto, on the promenade of the Ascoli Riviera. The 38-year-old entrepreneur and Greco-Roman wrestling athlete Giuseppe Barboni threw to the ground and beat in the street an Iraqi homeless man who was causing problems for cars in circulation because he was blocking traffic.
The heated confrontation in the street and then the violence: the video goes viral, but there is still no complaint
After a long confrontation with rather heated tones, violence broke out. The incident was quite striking especially because Barboni is registered with the Future National party of General Roberto Vannacci. And the video – recorded by a passerby and posted on Barboni’s own social media – went around the web quickly becoming viral. The assaulted Iraqi has not yet filed a complaint against the athlete.
Now the police of San Benedetto are working to reconstruct what happened and once all the necessary checks have been carried out, the officers will send a report to the Prosecutor’s Office of Ascoli Piceno for evaluations on the behavior of both Barboni and the man struck, who is already known to the police forces.
The reactions of the institutions: “Intolerable images, climate of rising racism”
The incident sparked a flurry of reactions starting with that of the mayor of San Benedetto Nicola Mozzoni who in a video clearly said “violence cannot be a solution, we distance ourselves from what happened.” The same position was taken by the Cgil of the province of Ascoli: “the images we have seen are intolerable: violence is never a solution, in no case and for no reason. Taking justice into your own hands is never an acceptable solution. No one can replace the rule of law.”
“It appears evident to us – writes the Cgil of Ascoli – that all this fits into a climate of rising racism, which migrant workers increasingly suffer in the territory, as we have also seen in Ascoli with a crude and racist banner that appeared in the city a few weeks ago. A climate fueled by some movements and parties that feed on the perception of insecurity to gain political consensus and create greater social fractures.”
The union calls on the mayors of the territory to convene an urgent table with the Social Parties and associations “to try to build stable solutions for our community, in a spirit of solidarity and inclusion, and never again have degrading images like those seen.”
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