Thousands of mostly young people took to the streets of 70 Italian cities on Friday to demand action to tackle the environmental crisis as part of the Fridays for Future Movement's global climate strike.
Friday is also the last day of campaigning for Sunday's general election in Italy. Fridays For Future Italia (FFF Italia) said the climate crisis has been largely ignored during the election campaign even though, with extreme weather events such as last week's deadly storms in Marche following months of drought that wreaked havoc on the country's agriculture, the effects of the emergency are being felt here in a big way.
"Today we are taking to the streets to bring the climate issue back to the centre of public debate," said Filippo Sotgiu, a mathematics student and FFF Italia climate activist.
"It has been absent during the election campaign despite the climate disasters of recent months, the drought, the Marmolada (glacier avalanche in which 11 people died), the Marche floods, and despite the fact that the solutions for the ecological transition are the same as those needed to address the effects of the energy crisis".
The atmosphere at the marches was festive, with loud music, dancing, chanting and lots of funny slogans.
"We can't recycle wasted time," read one.
"No planet, no pesto" declared one at the Genoa march.
Although the majority of the protesters were young people, there were also many teachers, parents and other representatives of older generations.
"I'm here because I'm a citizen of the Earth," Mariangela Isaia, an elementary school teacher and member of the Parents for Future (PFF) movement, told ANSA.
"This protest is taking place in 70 Italian cities and many countries around the world.
"The climate is going berserk, but we are all just thinking of our own interests and about saving ourselves.
"But no one can save themselves on their own.
"So I feel that I'm a citizen of the world and I want the impact of this global strike to go beyond Italy and beyond Europe and to reach extra-EU countries, as they are the ones that are suffering the tragedies of the climate crisis the worst. "We mustn''t have any more of leaders saying there's nothing we can do.
"Those who feel they can't do anything should get out".
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