Bologna, July 22, 2026 – “I don’t want to say that someone incited violence, but if you use certain tones… I hope that those who hold institutional positions, before calling a demonstration that risks escalating into violence, think twice.” Matteo Salvini took a Frecciarossa train from Rome “perfectly on time” and arrived this afternoon in Bologna, because he was keen to “meet and thank the young people who served in the square the other night,” during the night of guerrilla warfare. “There are months of prognosis, fractures, crutches, bandages for truly unacceptable violence, and I wanted to be there,” emphasized the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, who went to the Police Headquarters accompanied by Lucia Borgonzoni, Undersecretary for Culture, and other League members.
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Salvini’s presence in Bologna is never unnoticed: it was he, in 2020, who brought attention to Pilastro – a Bolognese banlieue where Abderrahim Fakir died – with the famous intercom call and that “Excuse me, but are you dealing?” which caused a stir. The Deputy Prime Minister pointed the finger at the demonstration in the square called by Mayor Matteo Lepore 24 hours after the tragedy. “Whoever calls a demonstration must commit to ensuring it is peaceful and, in case of damage, must pay through a deposit,” Salvini insisted. “Here in Bologna, there have been hundreds of thousands of euros in damages: who pays? As of today, everyone, and that’s not fair. I don’t recall other cases of demonstrations called from morning to evening to demand ‘truth and justice’: in that square for 10 hours, about a hundred police officers confronted 3,000 delinquents.”
“There is a violent and minority fringe whose goal is to use violence and sow hatred,” Salvini continued: “it could be the Tav, it could be the pro-Palestine activists, it could be the death the other night, it could be Rami in Milan, it could be waking up on the wrong side of the bed, but there is a fringe that hates the State, hates uniforms, and hates 99% of decent Italians. Decent people have nothing to fear when the police intervene: every death is a defeat, but let’s await the autopsy results without blaming police officers, Carabinieri, and the Red Cross as culprits. I am more than sure that the young people who intervened wanted anything but to cause a death and worked according to protocol and common sense. I hope that hatred for uniforms remains outside the political context, because sometimes someone in Parliament, when they hear about law enforcement, has a fit of allergy: politics can be divided on many things, but respect for those who wear a uniform is sacred.”
As for the case of the lack of official authorization for the demonstration, the Deputy Prime Minister commented: “I leave it to the Police Headquarters and Prefecture to evaluate, but when violence intervenes, someone must pay the consequences. The League had supported a measure in the last Security decree that did not pass: if it were operational today, whoever calls a demonstration in the square would have to deposit a surety bond into a current account to compensate for any damages.”
For Bolognese senator Sandra Zampa (Pd), however, “it is shameful and serious that a minister pretends not to know that two demonstrations took place in Bologna, one peaceful and one violent.”
“I am struck by the deep anti-democratic sentiment that the right-wing government expresses,” Zampa concluded.
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