No Berlusconi day
Encyclopedia
No Berlusconi Day was a spontaneous mass political event organised by the Purple people
and held worldwide on December 5th 2009. The protest was organized almost entirely trough the Internet
. The supportes were also known as Onda Viola (=Purple Wave), because of the color chosen to distinguish the event, and widely used by all of the participants.
's public image. Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister at the time, was involved in a consistent amount of sex scandals, brought to court for financial crimes, and accused by many mobbers to be involved with the mafia organizations.
", one of Berlusconi's "ad personam" laws, was sentenced to be against Italy's Constitutional principles of equality by the Constitutional Court. A small group of bloggers started to comment on the sentence through internet's social networks, and later proposed a public protest against Silvio Berlusconi.
The proposal was successful, and spread across social networks: in less than a week the "No Berlusconi Day" page reached over 20,000 members. The project was joined by people from all over Italy; local groups were created and people started to get organized.
In late October an official date was decided, December the 5th, and the main venue was to be Rome
.
People from all over the country and all over the world kept joining in, and by early November registered supporters had boomed to 200,000.
, Walter Veltroni
, Nanni Moretti
, Daniele Luttazzi
, Paolo Flores d'Arcais
, Beppe Grillo
, Dario Fo
, Dacia Maraini
, Margherita Hack
, Piero Ricca, Sabina Guzzanti
, Roberto Vecchioni
, Moni Ovadia
, Salvatore Borsellino, Piergiorgio Odifreddi
, Vincenzo Vita
This people's uproar forced the main opposition party - the PD
- to declare his position as far as supporting the No Berlusconi Day. The PD Secretary, Pierluigi Bersani, anyway remained somehow ambiguous, thus creating much disillusion in the Party's supporters and staff.
gathered. The events kept going on for the whole day, since No Berlusconi Day demonstrations took place all over the world: Berlin
, Paris
, London
, Buenos Aires
, Madrid
, New York
and even Beijing
.
The main group of supported was planned to round up in Rome.
The program was respected almost flawlessly. The participants met in Piazza della Repubblica and started marching at 14:00, towards piazza S. Giovanni; they passed through via Cavour, piazza S. Maria Maggiore and via Merulana. The main stage was built in Piazza San Giovanni, and the first speaker started his speech at 16:30. Many others contributions followed until 18:30, when the veteran songwriter Roberto Vecchioni
buckled the day with a 30' concert.
Purple people
The Purple People are an Italian mass protest movement who are calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi...
and held worldwide on December 5th 2009. The protest was organized almost entirely trough the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. The supportes were also known as Onda Viola (=Purple Wave), because of the color chosen to distinguish the event, and widely used by all of the participants.
Background
The main idea behind the event was to show protest and dissatisfaction against Silvio BerlusconiSilvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
's public image. Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister at the time, was involved in a consistent amount of sex scandals, brought to court for financial crimes, and accused by many mobbers to be involved with the mafia organizations.
Organization of the event
On October 6, 2009 the so called "lodo AlfanoLodo Alfano
The Lodo Alfano , named after Berlusconi's Minister of Justice Angelino Alfano, was an Italian law, valid between 2008 and 2009, granting immunity from prosecution to the four highest political offices in Italy...
", one of Berlusconi's "ad personam" laws, was sentenced to be against Italy's Constitutional principles of equality by the Constitutional Court. A small group of bloggers started to comment on the sentence through internet's social networks, and later proposed a public protest against Silvio Berlusconi.
The proposal was successful, and spread across social networks: in less than a week the "No Berlusconi Day" page reached over 20,000 members. The project was joined by people from all over Italy; local groups were created and people started to get organized.
In late October an official date was decided, December the 5th, and the main venue was to be Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
.
People from all over the country and all over the world kept joining in, and by early November registered supporters had boomed to 200,000.
Famous people who supported the project
Many prominent public figures supported the No Berlusconi Day; among them were: Antonio Di PietroAntonio Di Pietro
Antonio Di Pietro is an Italian politician. He was a Member of the European Parliament, an Italian Senator, and Minister of the Prodi Government...
, Walter Veltroni
Walter Veltroni
Walter Veltroni, Knight Grand Cross, is an Italian writer, journalist and politician, who served as the first leader of the Democratic Party within the centre-left opposition, until his resignation on 17 February 2009. He served as Mayor of Rome from 2001 to 2008.-Biography:Walter Veltroni was...
, Nanni Moretti
Nanni Moretti
Giovanni "Nanni" Moretti is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter and actor.-Life and work:Moretti was born in Bruneck, South Tyrol , in 1953 to parents who were teachers...
, Daniele Luttazzi
Daniele Luttazzi
Daniele Luttazzi , real name Daniele Fabbri, is an Italian theater actor, writer, satirist, illustrator and singer/songwriter. His stage name is a homage to musician and actor Lelio Luttazzi...
, Paolo Flores d'Arcais
Paolo Flores d'Arcais
Paolo Flores d'Arcais is an Italian philosopher and journalist, editor of the magazine MicroMega...
, Beppe Grillo
Beppe Grillo
Giuseppe Piero Grillo, better known as Beppe Grillo , is an Italian activist, blogger, comedian, actor and politician, who also works in theatres and television.-Biography:Grillo was born in Genoa, Liguria....
, Dario Fo
Dario Fo
Dario Fo is an Italian satirist, playwright, theater director, actor and composer. His dramatic work employs comedic methods of the ancient Italian commedia dell'arte, a theatrical style popular with the working classes. He currently owns and operates a theatre company with his wife, actress...
, Dacia Maraini
Dacia Maraini
Dacia Maraini is an Italian writer. She is the daughter of Sicilian Princess Topazia Alliata di Salaparuta, an artist and art dealer, and of Fosco Maraini, a Florentine ethnologist and mountaineer of mixed Ticinese, English and Polish background who wrote in particular on Tibet and Japan...
, Margherita Hack
Margherita Hack
Margherita Hack is an Italian astrophysicist and popular science writer. The asteroid 8558 Hack, discovered in 1995, was named in her honor.-Biography:...
, Piero Ricca, Sabina Guzzanti
Sabina Guzzanti
Sabina Guzzanti is an Italian satirist, actress, writer and producer whose work is devoted to examining social and political life in Italy.-Early life:...
, Roberto Vecchioni
Roberto Vecchioni
Roberto Vecchioni is an Italian singer-songwriter and writer.-Biography:Vecchioni was born in Carate Brianza, province of Milan, to a family of Neapolitan origin. In 1968 he graduated in Classical Literature at the Università Cattolica of Milan, where he remained for two years as assistant...
, Moni Ovadia
Moni Ovadia
Moni Ovadia is an Italian actor, musician, singer and theatrical author. "Moni" is short for "Salomone" .-Career:Ovadia was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 1946 to a Jewish family who moved to Milan in Ovadia's early childhood...
, Salvatore Borsellino, Piergiorgio Odifreddi
Piergiorgio Odifreddi
Piergiorgio Odifreddi , is an Italian mathematician, logician and aficionado of the history of science, who is also extremely active as a popular science writer and essayist, especially in a perspective of philosophical atheism as a member of the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and...
, Vincenzo Vita
Media coverage and Parties' attention
The event immediately attracted the media's attention, and members of the No Berlusconi-day staff appeared in TV news and were interviewed by major Italian newspapers. Most of them were ordinary people, rather unheard of by the greater public, but sometimes popular in the bloggers' community.This people's uproar forced the main opposition party - the PD
Democratic Party (Italy)
The Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy, that is the second-largest in the country. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected in the 2009 leadership election....
- to declare his position as far as supporting the No Berlusconi Day. The PD Secretary, Pierluigi Bersani, anyway remained somehow ambiguous, thus creating much disillusion in the Party's supporters and staff.
The No Berlusconi Day
The No Berlusconi Day started on December 5, at 4:00 am, Rome time schedule, when the No Berlusconi Day group from SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
gathered. The events kept going on for the whole day, since No Berlusconi Day demonstrations took place all over the world: Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and even Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
.
The main group of supported was planned to round up in Rome.
The program was respected almost flawlessly. The participants met in Piazza della Repubblica and started marching at 14:00, towards piazza S. Giovanni; they passed through via Cavour, piazza S. Maria Maggiore and via Merulana. The main stage was built in Piazza San Giovanni, and the first speaker started his speech at 16:30. Many others contributions followed until 18:30, when the veteran songwriter Roberto Vecchioni
Roberto Vecchioni
Roberto Vecchioni is an Italian singer-songwriter and writer.-Biography:Vecchioni was born in Carate Brianza, province of Milan, to a family of Neapolitan origin. In 1968 he graduated in Classical Literature at the Università Cattolica of Milan, where he remained for two years as assistant...
buckled the day with a 30' concert.