The Padova prosecutor wants to charge members of the “last generation” with forming a criminal organization. The protest.
The program of the “last generation” is in Italy as in Germany: blockades, glue and paint Photo: Claudia Greco/Reuters
ROM taz | The “Last Generation” is an established criminal organization. At least that is the position announced on Saturday by the public prosecutor’s office in Padova, who want to charge twelve members of the “Ultima Generazione” – as the organization is called in Italian – not just with property damage or road blockades. After all, the suspects did not improvise their actions, according to the investigators, but planned them meticulously and thus fulfilled the criteria for forming a criminal organization.
Should this view prevail in court, the “last generation” in Italy would find themselves on a par with counterfeiting rings or gangs of car thieves. The alleged criminals would have to face prison sentences of up to seven years on the charge of “criminal organization” alone.
The 12 climate activists who are now being targeted by the public prosecutor’s office have carried out the usual Ultima Generazione program in recent months, as is also known from Germany: traffic blockades, adhesive and spraying actions on works of art. Last September, three members of the group glued themselves to a painting by the famous Renaissance painter Giorgione, as always, only to the glass pane protecting the picture, without causing any further damage. And so, on December 14, they blocked the bridge that connects Venice to the mainland for half an hour.
That should now bring them charges of property damage, disruption of traffic and public services – and for forming a criminal organization.
“Treated as if they were mafiosi”
The only thing that can stop them is that their position on the environment is heard, explained one of the group’s spokesmen. And on Instagram, “Ultima Generazione” announced that the accused are “non-violent citizens who are treated as if they were Mafiosi”, that is the law of the Wild West, not that of a democracy.
With spectacular campaigns, “Ultima Generazione” has also gained a large media presence in Italy in recent months – and caused fierce controversy. It all started last summer when several members glued themselves to Botticelli’s world-famous “Venus” painting in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. On January 2nd, the Palazzo of the Senate in Rome was the victim of a paint spraying campaign, on April 1st activists poured black charcoal paint into a baroque fountain in front of the Spanish Steps in Rome. But it was always the case that the color can be washed off.
The biggest furor came on March 17th, when the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence – still the city hall today – was sprayed with paint: The accidental one passing Mayor Dario Nardella pounced on one of the perpetrators and yelled “che cazzo fai?!” (“What shit are you doing?!”).
However, Nardella is now among those who reject the persecution of the Last Generation as a criminal organization: “They are wrong, but they are not terrorists”. The head of the right-wing populist Lega and Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini sees things very differently. “That’s right!” he says happily. Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government also wants to show greater hardness. She just increased the fines for “demearing works of art” to up to 60,000 euros.
