As stars walked the red carpet for the opening of the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday, some 2,000 striking Venice city workers marched up to a police line barring them from entering the festival grounds on Lido Island.
It was not an angry confrontation and there were no immediate indications anyone had been arrested; but the workers, chafing about pay cuts they say were mandated by an interim mayor who replaced one who resigned in a corruption scandal, said they had targeted the film festival to make a point.
“There is the red carpet, and we think the services given to the citizens are worth the red carpet,” Alessio Boato, a leader of the protest and an official of the umbrella union CISL (Confederation of Trade Unions in Italy), told Reuters.
Behind him, marchers blew whistles and waved placards, including one comparing the salary cuts to a horror film.
Boato said measures taken by interim mayor Vittorio Zappalorto would have a disproportionate impact on services to the city’s residents.
“Italy is among the top 10 countries for services given — almost on a level of northern Europe,” he said. “We say to the whole world that our idea of democracy is services to the citizens.”
Boato said he and other march leaders had met with a counsellor to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, who was attending the festival opening, to discuss their grievances.
