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“The President of the Republic is my symbol. I found myself saying a stupid and not really thought out phrase, I’m mortified. I apologize, my priority was to remove an elderly lady from problems caused by any charges.” This is what GM, 54 years old, the Carabiniere Chief Marshal said, who last Saturday during the pro-Palestine sit-down, responding to a protester, said he did not recognize President Mattarella. “We had to charge, I had thought of identifying myself with that elderly lady in front of me and then taking her behind the police cordon and putting her under protection, given that the situation in the square was heating up”, explained GM
The story
Last Saturday, during the pro-Palestine sit-in, a policeman, responding to a protester, said that he did not recognize the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. The general command of the Army ordered the immediate transfer of the soldier and informed the military and ordinary authorities in the person of the Milan prosecutor Marcello Viola. An information from the Carabinieri is awaited at the Prosecutor’s Office and the video will have to be analysed. Then the case against the soldier will be registered: at the moment the crime of “offending the honor or prestige of the President of the Republic” can be hypothesized but the prosecutors will have to make assessments following the information.
The video and the shocking response to the protester
Franca Caffa was in the front row among the Pro Palestine protesters who attempted to march in Milan on Saturday and were blocked in Via Padova. And the ninety-four-year-old former PRC municipal councilor, founder of the Molise-Calvairate-Ponti tenants’ committee, asked one of the carabinieri in riot gear: “What did Mattarella say?” Her response stunned her, as seen in a video published by some media. “With all due respect, ma’am, you are not my president” is the soldier’s response which can be seen from the videos of the day. “What country is he from?” Caffa then asks, to which the carabiniere replies: “I didn’t vote for him, I didn’t choose him, I don’t recognize him.”