ROME – Trade unions condemned the use of violence by police in a clash with La Sapienza University students who were demonstrating against a conference attended by right wing commentators and members of the Brothers of Italy party.

 The meeting, organised at La Sapienza University by the right-wing student group Azione Universitaria, was subjected to protests Tuesday morning by other student collectives. Manifestants, bearing a banner with the words “Fascists out of Sapienza,” tried to gain access to the conference but were pushed back by a line of police armed with truncheons and riot shields. 

 CGIL, Italy's oldest trade union, wrote in response to the incident, "We consider the reaction of the police unacceptable. The students were protesting peacefully against a conference on 'good capitalism'. We never tolerate the suppression of dissent with violence, and this is happening in places of education. We ask for the immediate clarification of the incident from all institutions involved, in particular we ask for clarity on who authorised this violent intervention." 

 In video footage of the protest, one policeman can be seen violently swinging his baton at the line of demonstrators. Estimates put the number of student protesters outside the Political Sciences faculty at around 50.

 The rector of La Sapienza, Antonella Polimeni, criticised the violence on both sides, stating that the university “must be a place where we study and grow, where we must meet each other and face each other, but not confront each other physically. We condemn all forms of violence and we guarantee, to every individual who acts under constitutional principles, the right to freely voice their own opinions in accordance with the plurality of ideas.”

 es