«As mayor of the city of Bologna I would like to reiterate my strong concern regarding the progress of the Virtus-Maccabi match scheduled for November 21 in PalaDozza. In my opinion, there are no public order conditions that can regulate this event calmly. The risk to the safety of citizens, shops and the city is very high.”
Mayor of Lepore’s appeal
These are the notes of the Mayor of Bologna, Matteo Lepore, regarding the Euroleague matches scheduled in the Emilian capital on November 21. “There is still time to move the match to another date and venue.
I ask Minister Piantedosi to think again for the good of everyone”, concluded the mayor. In expressing his opposition to the Euroleague basketball match played between Bologna Vu Nere and the Israeli club, Lepore underlined that he had learned «today, moreover, that they also want to impose on the Municipality of Bologna a large part of the costs of managing public order, currently estimated at almost 200 thousand euros, including those that will probably occur after the planned demonstrations around the match in the historic center and the costs of stopping various public construction sites». Then, mayor Emilian attacked again «I find this situation completely unacceptable and disrespectful to the city of Bologna. From the internet we know that there will probably be at least 5-10 thousand protesters present in Bologna from all over Italy and beyond. I imagine that the police forces will be mobilized in an extraordinary way following the choice of the Ministry of the Interior to play the match in these conditions, despite – Lepore concluded – the assessments and requests expressed by the Municipality in the Public Order Committee recently.
Just hours before this latest message, Lepore himself had launched an appeal calling for non-violence against all sideline demonstrations organized ahead of the start of the match.
Activists’ message
“What the Zionist State has done and is still doing, is unacceptable and must not be ignored. This is why Virtus’ fixtures, first with Maccabi and then with Hapoel, have always been the subject of dispute. In particular, no one can ignore that Maccabi fans do not consist of ‘ordinary basketball fans’ but of Israeli reservists who create aggression wherever they play in Europe,” the letter read.
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