Massive student demonstrations in Italy

Italian students are expressing their disgust for the new law in original ways. They have had lectures in the street, occupied universities and sat down in front of the administration in their underwear, in order to demonstrate the situation they are in.

– In contrast to what the ministers say, we are not blindly defending the university as it functions today, or denying that it has faults. We are defending the very existence of the public university, says Federica Musetta, leader of the national student organization of Italy, Unione degli Universitari.

Prime Minsiter Silvio Berlusconi’s government, which is to the right of Italian politics, has made a law that among other things cuts funding to an education system that is already under pressure. According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Berlusconi stated last week that he would deploy police to throw out the students that occupied the universities.

– This is an act of violence. The state must do its duty, which is to secure the rights of students that wish to study, Berlusconi stated according to the paper.

Simen Ekern, author of the book «Berlusconi’s Italy», points to the facts that Berlusconi has on several occasions made negative comments about the public universities. He has also spent 35 million euro founding a private «liberal university».

– This is a general protest about the turn of politics towards the right. The protestors believe that the government is taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich. They fear that Italian society will become even more of a class society, Ekern says.

Old news

Christian Bonafede studies Communications at the University of Sapienza in Rome, and is a student representative on the university board. He says that the education sector has been in trouble for a long time, and finds it worrying that students have not reacted sooner.

– The Public universities have been in trouble for a long time, partly due to poor administration and partly due to constant cuts in funding from governments, both those to the right and to the left of politics. There have been problems in the education sector for years, but nobody has ever protested against the general inefficiency.

Ekern agrees that funding cuts in the education sector are nothing new in Italy, but emphasizes that the students have real cause to react now.

– The universities have not exactly been swamped in funding by previous governments either. What the students are reacting to now, is the way in which this government’s cuts are so one-sided in terms of ideology.

Think that the protests are in vain

Bonafede thinks that the causes of this problem go much deeper than this law. He does not believe that the demonstrations will give results.

– Protest action is an unconstructive method that, to this day, has not led anywhere. One often sees these kinds of attempts to pressure governments in office. The students will protest for a few days, till they get some attention, and then things will settle down again, without any change having taken place, he says.

Ekern also doubts that the protests will make a difference.

– There have been violent uproars against controversial laws before. Yet they have still gone through. Of course it will be harder to legitimize this law the bigger the protests get, but

Berlusconi is not exactly a weak politician. It is not unlikely that he will ignore the protests.

Musetta is more positive and believes that the current student rebellion differs from previous student rebellions in many ways.

– Italy has not seen this level of broad involvement for a long time. It concerns all universities, and does not just unite students, but also professors, researchers, and technical staff, she says.

Even though Bonafede does not condone the methods that the students have been using, he agrees that academia should be a much higher priority on the political agenda.

– You cannot treat something that represents the true drive of human development in our society in this way.

The biggest labour unions in Italy have warned of a strike against education policy on Thursday, according to British newspaper the Guardian.