No “Altra Cernobbio”, Piantedosi and the municipality still say no to the network of associations that goes from Arci to Emergency

No bike ride. No march. No picket line. And no big hall. This year too, the Altra Cernobbio, the counter-demonstration to the Ambrosetti Forum in early September, organized by 52 associations in the town on Lake Como, did not obtain the necessary authorizations.

For this reason its promoters – the Sbilanciamoci! Campaign – have written to the Minister of the Interior Matthew Piantedosito denounce “an inexplicable discrimination”. On one side there is the Ambrosetti Forum, which has brought together politicians, academics and entrepreneurs at an international level at Villa D’Este for half a century. On the other side there is a network that ranges from Arci and Emergency to Legambiente and Antigone, and which since 1999 has organized a parallel forum to propose an alternative economy to the market economy and discuss fair trade, work, disarmament, the environment and research.

“The Ambrosetti Forum and the Italian establishment are guaranteed every democratic and logistical freedom,” he attacks Julius Marconespokesperson for Sbilanciamoci! “We are denied any public visibility. It is discrimination against the world of volunteering and associations, which certainly do not represent a cause for alarm for the institutions”. The Sbilanciamoci! network therefore asks the Minister of the Interior “to revoke an unjust and above all unjustifiable decision, which violates the constitutional principles of freedom of expression and demonstration”.

After years of events around Italy at the same time as the Ambrosetti Forum, Sbilanciamoci! has been organizing the counter-demonstration in Cernobbio for some time now, to be in the same physical location as the Forum. “But in the last two years, in fact since the Meloni Government – continues Marcon – we no longer obtained the authorizations”.

The Municipality of Cernobbio denied Sbilanciamoci! a 90-seat room, while the Police Headquarters, according to the network, created “a sort of undeclared red zone throughout the Municipality, an area of ​​12 square kilometers and almost 3 kilometers long”. Having cancelled the bike ride and even the march, Sbilanciamoci! had no choice but to go elsewhere. On September 6 and 7 The Other Cernobbio will be in Como, in the Spazio Gloria Arci Xanadù and in the Teatro Nuovo Rebbio; on September 8th in Cernobbio, in a room in via Cinque Giornate. Among the guests are former ministers Rosy Bindi and Enrico Giovannini.

The Como Police Headquarters underlines the complexity of managing a single road that connects Como and Cernobbio, crossed by many personalities headed to Villa d’Este. The prefect of Como Andrea Polichetti assures that “nobody is being hindered, it is just a question of public order”. The mayor of Cernobbio is much more direct, Matthew Monti, a civic close to the center-right. “We don’t want events that distract attention from the Forum, there’s the rest of the year to do them,” he says. The mayor recalls having granted a room in a more secluded area of ​​the town. “It has less than 40 seats, but the Forum has many events with remote connections. Even the protesters could accept those seats and connect remotely.”