{"id":34200,"date":"2026-07-21T19:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T19:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/34200\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T19:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T19:08:15","slug":"italys-meloni-slams-protesters-following-clashes-in-bologna-police-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/34200\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s Meloni slams protesters following clashes in Bologna | Police News"},"content":{"rendered":"

PM pledges probe into death of Moroccan man under police restraint, condemns violence as protests injure 56 officers.<\/p>\n

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Published On 21 Jul 202621 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has condemned demonstrators in Bologna, after protests over the death of a Moroccan man under police restraint left dozens of officers injured.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Tuesday, the right-wing premier pledged that the death of Abderrahim Fakir would be investigated fairly, but accused overnight protests of seeking \u201cconfrontation\u201d rather than \u201ctruth\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 42-year-old Fakir died on Sunday after police were called to deal with a man behaving aggressively and damaging a vehicle.<\/p>\n

Protests<\/a> broke out on Sunday night, and as they resumed on Monday evening in central Bologna, they clashed with police.<\/p>\n

Demonstrators hurled firecrackers, bottles and chairs at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. The Italian Coordination of Police Officers reported that 56 officers were injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who chose to use this incident as a pretext to lay waste to the city, attack officers and spread violence \u2026 were not seeking the truth: they were seeking confrontation,\u201d Meloni declared.<\/p>\n

She added that \u201cany responsibilities\u201d must \u201cbe ascertained with the utmost rigour\u201d and that the truth must be pursued \u201cwithout prejudice and without leniency toward anyone\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AA protester kneels, raises a fist and holds a portrait of Abderrahim Fakir during a demonstration in Bologna, Italy, July 20, 2026 [Michele Lapini\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

Footage of Fakir\u2019s final moments, widely shared online, shows him face down while two officers restrain him and he calls for help and says he can not breathe before falling still.<\/p>\n

The footage has drawn comparisons to the 2020 killing of George Floyd<\/a> by United States police in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have opened an investigation, reigniting debate in Italy over the use of force during arrests.<\/p>\n

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said he had \u201cfull confidence\u201d the inquiry would establish the facts, telling the daily Il Messaggero that officers deserve the same \u201cpresumption of innocence\u201d as any other citizen.<\/p>\n

The case has drawn reactions across the political spectrum.<\/p>\n

Members of the populist right-wing governing coalition have defended the officers involved.<\/p>\n

Opposition politicians have criticised the government for its handling of the incident and claimed that its policies promote violence.<\/p>\n

Centre-left legislator Francesco Boccia warned against Italy adopting an \u201cICE model\u201d of policing, referring to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which has been involved in several killings of protesters.<\/p>\n

Lawyer Barbara Spinelli, who had met Fakir last year when he applied to renew his residency permit, told the ANSA news agency that he was \u201ca very kind, well-educated, respectful person\u201d who had worried about being expelled from Italy despite living there legally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PM pledges probe into death of Moroccan man under police restraint, condemns violence as protests injure 56 officers.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[241,5,332,36,2020,15900],"class_list":["post-34200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-europe","tag-italy","tag-migration","tag-news","tag-police","tag-protests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34200","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=34200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}