Bologna, September 19, 2026 – Bologna took to the streets in support of the doctors who were searched, and in some cases investigated, for the fitness certificates for the entry of migrants into the Cpr, shouting that “freedom of care is not a crime” and that “Cpr must be abolished”. Under the Neptune fountain and at Palazzo Re Enzo yesterday afternoon there were more than three hundred people, in solidarity with the 23 healthcare professionals from all over Italy involved in the investigation, initiated and coordinated by the Ravenna Prosecutor’s Office.
The mobilization in the square: “This is a strong attack on medical autonomy and ethics”
An operation that pushed associations and colleagues to call a street demonstration, promoted by Làbas, Popular Health Laboratory and the Luna collective. Tpo also joined: “Another red line has been crossed, this is a strong attack on autonomy and on medical ethics – thundered through the megaphone Andrea Mariano, doctor and volunteer of the Popular Health Laboratory –. The medical figure who operates with science and conscience, in absolute freedom, suffers a strong intimidation.” Many interventions were made, but the message is unanimous: “The Cpr must be abolished, because no one is fit to be locked up,” especially not in facilities “with a prison-like imprint.”
“We are here to claim our profession and also to protect our colleagues”
Also present were Healthcare Workers for Gaza and a group of infectious disease doctors from Romagna: “We are here to claim our profession and also to protect our colleagues – the doctors explain –. We are asked to care. Asking us to do otherwise is very wrong, towards us but especially towards the patients. Any kind of interference makes us care worse.” The reflection falls on the people subjected to checks for possible fitness. People who “are often exhausted from very heavy journeys. If we had to assess them, it would be very difficult to think of being able to express a judgment without a comprehensive framework of their health conditions.”
The Cgil also supports the mobilization
The Cgil also supported the mobilization: “We have always been against the Cpr,” says secretary Michele Bulgarelli, who believes that in a country “in disaster as certified also by Istat,” for the Government “it is easier to manipulate and create scapegoats: yesterday the magistrates and today the doctors. We will not be intimidated by these Gestapo methods,” referring to the Nazi secret police.
Di Stasi (Pd): “Unacceptable the instrumental political campaign unleashed against healthcare professionals”
Also in the square was Coalizione Civica with group leader Detjon Begaj: “Working this way, with this political pressure from the government, which for a year has been pushing the Cpr, is serious. Doctors must have freedom to decide. And in the case of access to the Cpr, they have a responsibility they should not have. No one is fit to be in an inhumane place. The Cpr must be closed.”
For the Pd there are Claudio Mazzanti, Antonella Di Pietro, Erika Ferranti and Mery de Martino. For secretary Enrico Di Stasi it is “unacceptable the instrumental political campaign unleashed against healthcare professionals, even before individual responsibilities have been ascertained.”
Forza Italia attacks the Pd: “The participation of the Dems in the demonstration? Serious and incomprehensible”
And Forza Italia attacks the Pd which “should distance itself from those who put in question the autonomy and independence of the judiciary, fueling instrumental suspicions about the proper functioning of institutions,” comments the regional group leader Pietro Vignali, for whom the participation of the Dems in the demonstration was “serious and incomprehensible.”
