The Cheering Section: Pro-European Union Protests Sweep Rome

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Rome over the weekend, waving the European Union’s blue flags in a show of support as the bloc moves to rearm to help Ukraine in its war with Russia amid tensions with the United States over the conflict, the Associated Press reported.

The pro-EU demonstrations – launched by Italian journalist Michele Serra – saw more than 30,000 people in the Italian capital, according to the organizers.

The initiative received support from many center-left opposition parties, with organizers saying it united Italians across the political divide, noted Italy’s Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA).

Italian far-right Prime Minster Giorgia Meloni has reluctantly backed an EU plan to rearm Europe over concerns that the proposal by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen might weigh on Italy’s giant national debt, diverting much-needed funds to weapons spending.

Von der Leyen recently proposed a defense spending-package of more than $870 billion, which will require EU nations to increase their national spending on defense and security.

Saturday’s protests are the result of tensions between the EU and its traditional ally, the US, over the Trump administration’s foreign policy, especially the war in Ukraine and tariffs.

“We are here to defend freedom and democracy,” one participant at the demonstration told the newswire. “These are concepts that we got used to over 80 years, but in reality they need to be defended, we cannot take them as a given.”

While protesters claimed that Saturday’s rallies sought to “defend freedom and democracy,” Italy’s right-wing government dismissed them.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani described them as a “symbolic event,” noting that support for Europe requires “concrete reforms.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini of the Eurosceptic Lega (League) party criticized the protests and claimed that officials are working “to change this Europe, which crushes workers, farmers, and entrepreneurs with its absurd rules.”