Bologna, July 21, 2026 – “You must have trust in the judicial authorities. Those who profess expressions prejudicially against the police forces mean that they have no trust either in the police or in the judiciary that will have to ascertain what happened.” Matteo Piantedosi, Minister of the Interior, speaks clearly about the case of Abderrahim Fakir, 42 years old, who died Sunday during a police intervention in Pilastro, a working-class neighborhood of Bologna. What will emerge from the bodycam footage of the two police officers who forced the man to the ground, who had lost control, “will be determined by the magistrates themselves. It is a very well-documented episode,” and therefore there is more to analyze, Piantedosi notes, who also explained on Tg1 how the so-called ‘penal shield’ works (“But ‘shield’ is not the correct definition,” he observes).
PHOTO Sit-in for Fakir, clashes with the police
Monsignor Zuppi: “No instrumentalization for any reason”
The case in Bologna has shaken consciences, as evidenced by the warning from Monsignor Matteo Zuppi, head of the Italian bishops and Archbishop of Bologna. “Let not hatred, violence, even verbal and on social media, instrumentalization for any reason prevail”, but rather “respect, dialogue, and justice,” says Don Matteo. And it is precisely on the (mutual) accusations of instrumentalization that the political back-and-forth is played out.
The demonstration targeted by the center-right
Targeted by the center-right is particularly the demonstration organized yesterday, a few hours after the tragic event in Pilastro, by the mayor of Bologna, Matteo Lepore.
A sit-in that Galeazzo Bignami, leader of the Brothers of Italy group in the Chamber, defines as “a political calculation on the backs of citizens, with the aim of strengthening ties with an extreme left that is contesting the administration,” as happened two years ago in the Besta schools case.
But there is more: “If you organize a square with the premise of demanding ‘truth and justice,’ as Lepore did, you start from the premise that the police forces, in the intervention on Sunday in Pilastro, committed an injustice – reasons Bignami –. And this is unacceptable: this undermines the work of men and women in uniform, does not guarantee them peace of mind in carrying out their work and duties, and moreover, it shows how little trust the center-left parties have towards the police forces.”
Salvini: “We must avoid mud being thrown at the police and 118”
Already in the morning, Deputy Minister Matteo Salvini had raised the issue: “The mayor’s demonstration certainly does not help to ease the climate. We must avoid mud being thrown at the police and 118 and towards those who risk their lives to protect ours”. Salvini, after all, knows Pilastro well: he went to ring the doorbell of an immigrant family asking ‘Excuse me, do you deal drugs?’. “I know many good people there – he says today –: they called the police not out of whim but because a subject was losing control.” On the Bologna events “there will be investigations. The assessments are not up to me, I am not a magistrate,” limits himself to say the Deputy Prime Minister and secretary of Forza Italia, Antonio Tajani.
Other political reactions
On the other side of Parliament, the PD, with deputy Andrea De Maria, has requested “an urgent briefing from Piantedosi to shed light on what happened.” And if Carlo Calenda, leader of Azione, promotes the ‘penal shield’ (“Before investigating an officer, it is necessary to certify what happened through an internal procedure”), for the Five Star Movement Stefania Ascari will present a parliamentary question: “If a person is in obvious crisis, the State must know how to respond with humanity.” For the secretary of +Europa, Riccardo Magi, “one cannot die in the hands of the State.”
