(15 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rome, Italy – 15 March 2025
1. Effigy of Trump with dollars coming out of his mouth
2. Various of crowd at rally with banners and flags
3. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Susie Mariani, protester:
“I am afraid right now, of Trump, definitely, and of Elon Musk for sure, of all that group of executives. We are fragile between the US and Russia. We are a ceramic pot as they say. So it is right to defend Europe and come into the piazza to show it.”
4. People in crowd
5. Sign with European flag and words “I am European”
6. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Daniela Condotto, protester:
“We are here to defend freedom and democracy. These are concepts that we got used to over 80 years but in reality they are things to be defended, we cannot take them as a given. Freedom is not free. Democracy is not free. And we got used to thinking it was free, but it is not. Probably at this time we have to make ourselves heard and defend it.”
7. Various of crowd
8. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Giuseppe Canetti, protester:
“Europe can recover moving ahead with the process of making Europe, because Europe is still missing many parts. It is missing a common foreign policy, it is missing a common military, it is missing a common taxation system, so there is a very demanding path ahead to make this happen.”
9. Sign reading “Yes care, no rearm”
10. Various of crowd
STORYLINE:
Tens of thousands of Italians joined a pro-Europe rally in the center of Rome on Saturday, waving blue European Union flags in a sign of unity amid a European push for rearmament that has split the country.
The initiative – joined by most of the opposition parties despite their different positions – was launched by Italian journalist Michele Serra at the end of February, with an editorial on Italian daily La Repubblica titled: “Let’s say something European.”
“I wanted to organize a large demonstration of citizens supporting Europe, its unity, and its freedom, with no party flags, only European flags,” Serra explained, launching the slogan: “Here we make Europe, or we die.”
The initiative was born on the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s destabilizing policies, which marked an unprecedented break between Europe and the US, strained over the war in Ukraine and an ongoing tariff war.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni gave a reluctant backing to the ReArm Europe plan amid concerns that the defense-boosting proposal by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen might weigh on Italy’s giant debt, diverting much-needed cohesion funds to weapon spending.
The plan aims to mobilize around €800 billion over the next four years, the bulk of which will come from member states increasing their national spending on defense and security.
Internally, Meloni has openly criticized the EU plan, rejecting the term “rearm” as misleading and encouraging European partners to focus instead on “defence and security”.
Organizers said on Saturday that the rally, which filled Rome’s central Piazza del Popolo with at least 30,000 people, reunited Italians standing on different sides and voting for opposite parties, “in the name of democracy.”
The initiative obtained bipartisan support from students and civic associations, Italy’s three main unions, and 14 mayors from other Italian cities, who launched similar demonstrations in their own municipalities.
Right-wing government parties snubbed the demonstration, standing behind Meloni, who has been struggling in her attempt to play a mediating role between Trump and the EU.
AP video by Paolo Lucariello
Production by Trisha Thomas
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