No Dal Molin

While the gaffe-prone Italian ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi points out the obvious but perfectly Italian contradiction of politicians from the current government making known their intention to demonstrate against their own administration's policies, protestors are preparing to descend on the northern Italian town of Vicenza to show their opposition to the planned construction of an expanded U.S. base there.

The demonstration, which takes place tomorrow (17th February), is hoping to persuade the broad-left coalition government of Italy to rescind permisssion to expand the controversial base. Italy, no stranger to rainbow coalition governments, has several senior government members who are vocal in their opposition to the plans for the base, but who can not attend the protest because of their high-profile positions in the administration.

Some 250 coaches and 10 trains have been chartered to ferry an estimated 80,000 protestors from around Italy to Vicenza for the demonstration. Many Italian trade unions have signalled their intention to support the protests, but some of the so-called moderate unions, such as UIL, CISL and ACLI have made it clear that they will not participate, partly because the protests might be seen as “anti-American”. Amongst those who are attending, there is considerable concern about the possibility of infiltration by the so-called 'black-bloc', agent-provocateurs who widely thought to be the instigators of the violence at the 2001 G8 protests in Genova.

The issue of the expansion of this base at Vicenza is not only a matter for the Italian population, but has serious ramifications for the security of Europe and much further afield. At this juncture, and given the events of the past five years, no European country should be facilitating a ramping up of the U.S. presence in the region. On the contrary, in the interests of the safety and security of Europe and the wider world, they should be pressing for a phased withdrawl of all U.S. troops from European soil. The hard-pressed U.S. taxpayer will thank them for it, in the long run.