{"id":24399,"date":"2026-06-13T18:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T18:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/24399\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T18:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T18:51:15","slug":"thousands-march-in-rome-in-rival-anti-and-pro-migration-rallies-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/24399\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands march in Rome in rival anti- and pro-migration rallies"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROME (AP) \u2014 Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of the Italian capital in rival anti- and pro- migration<\/a> demonstrations Saturday, after a far-right citizens\u2019 initiative seeking sweeping measures against migrants garnered enough support to be brought to Parliament.<\/p>\n

A petition by the initiative, named \u201cRemigration and Reconquest,\u201d gathered the 50,000 signatures needed to trigger parliamentary discussion, pushing the once-fringe concept of \u201cremigration\u201d into the political mainstream. No date has been scheduled yet for a vote.<\/p>\n

The proposal, promoted by right-wing groups, calls for sweeping measures targeting foreigners, including coercive returns, incentives to leave Italy and broader policies critics say could extend to legal residents.<\/p>\n

Several thousand demonstrators from around Italy gathered for the anti-migration march, singing the national anthem. On several occasions, many of them raised their arms in the fascist salute, shouting \u201cDuce! Duce!,” a reference to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943.<\/p>\n

A rival, pro-migration demonstration saw tens of thousands of people take to the streets in another part of Rome Saturday evening. That march was attended by various left-wing groups and trade unions, with some demonstrators waving Palestinian flags.<\/p>\n

Thousands of police were deployed to ensure the two rival groups would remain apart. No violence was reported.<\/p>\n

The debate on migration represents a delicate balancing act for Premier Giorgia Meloni\u2019s right-wing coalition. While the anti-migration League has backed opening discussion, Meloni\u2019s Brothers of Italy and centrist allies have been more cautious about endorsing a proposal linked to extremist circles, amid concerns over legal risks and internal divisions.<\/p>\n

Critics, including opposition parties and legal experts, argue the proposal would violate constitutional and international anti-discrimination principles by targeting people based on ethnic background, including naturalized citizens and their descendants.<\/p>\n

The controversy comes even as Meloni\u2019s government pursues a parallel policy of expanding legal migration, having approved a multiyear plan to admit hundreds of thousands of non-EU workers to address labor shortages in key economic sectors.<\/p>\n

The demonstrations in Rome a day after a new set of European Union rules<\/a> came into effect governing how each of the bloc’s 27 member states will deal with irregular migration and asylum seekers.<\/p>\n

The European Migration and Asylum Pact is the culmination of years of grueling negotiations<\/a> that overhauled the previous system, which was widely considered a failure and gave far-right parties a potent issue to win votes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME (AP) \u2014 Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of the Italian capital in rival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8518,16945,6336,16943,27,16944],"class_list":["post-24399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rome","tag-demonstrations","tag-irregular-migration","tag-italian-capital","tag-rival-groups","tag-rome","tag-tens-of-thousands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}