When President Donald Trump of the United States visited Rome on 23rd May, dozens of Americans living in Italy organised a sit-in on Piazza Bologna to protest against the policies of the White House, 100 days after his election as President
The event was organised by American Expats for Positive Change (AEPC Italy) and Women’s March Rome.
During the demonstration, many signs and placards were visible for several hours, while the participants continuously sang folk songs and slogans, showing their disapproval of Trump’s policies.
US expatriates wanted to make it clear that they felt ashamed and embarrassed by the policies carried out by Donald Trump against diversity, the environment and human rights. These expatriates, as they have repeated several times before, consider this president incompetent and would like him to give up his functions.
Very symbolically, the sit-in ended with the song “Imagine” by John Lennon.
During the morning, peaceful demonstrators were arrested by the police in the Vatican. “We were arrested and detained for half an hour by the Italian police,” said one of them. “They confiscated our leaflets with the message “Let’s build bridges, not walls” with a quote from the Pope. We were told that “distributing any kind of manifestos, even indirectly, against Trump was forbidden in Rome, until his departure from the city!”
Below is the video and photo report from Piazza Bologna by Dario Lo Scalzo.
