Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Sunday condemned a violent demonstration the previous night in Rome organized by activists protesting against the death of Ramy Elgaml, the 19-year-old Italo-Egyptian Milan resident who died on November 24 in a scooter accident while being chased by the Carabinieri police.
"Amid paper bombs, tear gas and assaults, last night in Rome we saw the umpteenth, ignoble episode of disorder and chaos by the usual rioters who took to the streets not to demonstrate for a cause, but purely in a spirit of revenge", the prime minister wrote on social media.
"It's not possible to use a tragedy to legitimize violence.
"Our solidarity goes to the police, together with well wishes to the officers who were wounded.
"We are on your side", wrote Meloni.
Demonstrators and the police clashed in the Roman neighbourhood of San Lorenzo during a protest organized on Saturday night in memory of Ramy amid a probe into whether Carabinieri security officials chasing the scooter carrying him and driver Fares Bouzidi, a 22-year-old Tunisian, intentionally rammed into the motorbike.
The accident occurred at the end of an eight-km-long chase that ended at the Corvetto district, which officers said started after the pair drove through a roadblock.
The officer behind the wheel of the car directly following the scooter and Bouzidi are being probed on involuntary road murder charges while the other Carabinieri officials involved in the chase are being investigated over potentially false claims regarding the accident and for allegedly erasing a witness's video.
In Rome on Saturday night, after protesters threw paper bombs and tear gas against police, vehicles, the officers baton-charged demonstrators at Piazza Sanniti in an action investigative sources said was ordered by Rome's police chief "to protect the safety of police officers" Overall, eight policemen were wounded following the riots in Rome.
Other demonstrations were organized in cities including Milan, Bologna and Brescia by the Italian Antiracist Coordination "Justice and Truth" to protest against Ramy's death.
In Bologna, the local synagogue was vandalized in the night between Saturday and Sunday, along with other areas of the city centre following the march for Ramy, with Mayor Matteo Lepore expressing solidarity to the Jewish community.
"Despite the statements made online by those who promoted this violent gathering, there was no political demonstration, only devastation", said Lepore, a member of the Centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
The mayor also urged "everyone to keep calm, institutions will be united in dealing with what happened".
Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa on Sunday also "expressed "firm and total condemnation for the very grave episodes of violence reported in Rome and Bologna, where several criminals threw paper bombs against a precinct, attacked law enforcement officials and assaulted a synagogue.
"No justification, no tolerance is admissible for such episodes, which unfortunately continue to occur with concerning regularity", he noted, expressing solidarity to the mayors of Rome and Bologna, law enforcement officials and the Jewish community.
Police detained two people in Bologna who were reported to the judicial authorities and then released on charges of resistance and aggravated assault against public officers.
Earlier this week, a protest in Turin organized by far-left collective groups also turned violent and police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators.
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