March 18 () –
The mayor of the Italian city of Florence, Dario Nardella, has confronted this Friday two climate activists who have thrown paint on the facade of Palazzo Vecchio, one of the most emblematic buildings in the capital of Tuscany.
The protest action, carried out by two activists from the Última Generación group, was stopped almost instantly by municipal police officers and by the Florentine mayor himself –who was a few meters away recording an institutional video– who withdrew one of young people shouting: “What the hell are you doing?”.
A video released by ‘Corriere della Sera’ shows how Nardella runs towards one of the activists who was painting the façade of the building -which dates from the 14th century and houses the city hall- and pushes him while asking him for explanations about his performance.
After being reduced by the Municipal Police and booed by tourists, one of the activists has justified his action: “Sanction a building that is a symbol of power.” According to him, it was a way to protest against the lack of measures taken against climate change by the Government of Italy.
The cleaning of the building’s façade began immediately afterwards, a task to which the mayor of Florence himself helped with a brush and a water pressure machine, even standing on scaffolding.
“The attack on art, culture and beauty, which are powerless in the face of violence and which stand up for the good of humanity, can never justify fighting for a cause, not even the most acceptable one,” he later said. Nardella on the social network Twitter.
This is not the first time that Última Generación has carried out a protest act of this type. Last June, two activists glued themselves to ‘La Primavera’, Sandro Botticelli’s painting in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
