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A group of restaurant owners blocked the A1 highway between Florence and Arezzo, on Monday, in a protest against coronavirus restrictions.
“With the last decree and the yellow zone it is allowed to open only outside, until now it was allowed to eat inside. I don’t see many changes, now we also have a little bit more vaccinated people but we go backwards. Why?” asked one protester.
According to local reports, the protest caused a queue of almost six kilometres long and two protesters were injured when cars tried to drive through the blockade.
Italy had paused its four-tiered colour coded system in March, in response to rising numbers of cases and hospitalisations. On Friday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced the government would be taking ‘a reasonable risk’ by reinstating the system, with restaurants in yellow and white zones allowed to serve meals outdoors starting on April 26.
*SOUNDBITES*
SOT, Protester (Italian): “Our protest, we have been struggling for a long time and we cannot support it anymore. This is the climax of the protest aimed to raise awareness of what we are suffering. Because unfortunately, here the common sense in not in use and without common sense, things are not managed.”
SOT, Protester (Italian): “We are doing it for our families, for our children. We have responsibilities on our shoulders apart from our businesses. Because our businesses cannot bear the closure anymore, but if working – obviously safely, according to protocols. I repeat, with common sense.”
SOT, Protester (Italian): “If we remain closed, they cannot require us to pay everything because how would we pay it? With what are we paid? With Saturday’s takeaways, because at the end of the day only Saturdays are profitable, other days…”
SOT, Protester (Italian): “Since last May we remain in the same situation, actually, rather we are going backwards. With the last decree and the yellow zone it is allowed to open only outside, until now it was allowed to eat inside. I don’t see many changes, now we also have a little bit more vaccinated people but we go backwards. Why?”
SOT, Protester (Italian): “I feel for these people who, as I also told a colleague, cannot work. They have the right to work, it just puts them in insecurity and what can we do? Unfortunately, I understand them perfectly.”
#ItalyProtests #Italy #COVID19 #coronavirus
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