Bologna, September 12, 2026 – “The social campaigns on degradation have now become a precise political strategy: you take a neighborhood, look for the strongest images, provoke, film and turn everything into fear, followers and propaganda.” Thus Andrea De Maria, deputy of the Democratic Party
It is not security: it is the business of fear. Now a chapter of this degeneration of public debate is airing in Bologna, in Bolognina, in a peculiar intertwining between right-wing political figures and influencers. This is not how you serve the interests of citizens, promote security, or fight degradation. It only creates useless propaganda that worsens problems and creates conflicts and tension. I have already intervened several times on the degeneration of political debate in Bologna in the past and have also submitted a question to the Minister of the Interior.
The appeal to the Bologna right wing
De Maria then launches an appeal to the Bologna right wing: “Degradation and crime are fought with the unity of institutions and political forces and with social cohesion – continues the PD deputy –. Continuing to fan fear to get votes means giving up on truly addressing problems and truly defending citizens but doing exactly the opposite”
Thursday afternoon incident
It all started Thursday afternoon around 5:30 PM, when the group of influencers and TikTokers, including JollyTime, aka Ambrose Omo Irogho, were walking through the streets of Bolognina to shoot some content about urban degradation. Among the twelve content creators were also some Dutch members of ’Dutch Travel Maniac’, the channel of Tom van den Heuvel: known precisely for video reports in European cities on crime and urban decay.
Van den Heuvel, considered a figure close to the anti-immigration right and the Maga ecosystem in Europe, was in Bolognina together with JollyTime and other figures close to the same environment. These presences were not well received by some members of the collectives.
From here a first, very heated argument arose between JollyTime, the influencers, and “a couple of people who shouted at us ’racists’ and ’fascists’,” rewinds the tape the same Omo. The moments of very high tension required the immediate intervention of the police, who arrived on via Di Vincenzo after the shouting between the groups almost escalated into violence.
Cavedagna (FdI) against Begaj (Civic Coalition)
Stefano Cavedagna, MEP of FdI, raises the tone: “Among the violent protesters was also the leader of the Civic Coalition Detjon Begaj. So are these subjects orchestrated by the far left that supports Lepore? After having incited the square for Fakir, with the devastation seen downtown, someone who is part of the left-wing majority is still hiding among the violent ones”.
Begaj: “It was a provocation built to gain followers”
Begaj was indeed present at the protest during the standstill on via Di Vincenzo, as he himself had also announced on social media. Where he explained that “going towards the Civic Coalition headquarters in Bolognina, I found myself in front of an absurd scene – wrote leader Begaj –. Jollytime and other foreign influencers, followed by xenophobic, racist and neo-fascist environments, were doing a sort of social patrol in the neighborhood, surrounded by police vans”. An image in front of which “citizens and activists reacted with a spontaneous sit-in, asking them to leave. It was a provocation built to gain followers, views and monetization, on the backs of working-class neighborhoods, marginalized people and fear. Stop turning neighborhoods into the set for these characters“.
