Protests over Roberto Vannacci's visit to Turin (18 September 2026)
On 18 September 2026 the visit to Turin of former general Roberto Vannacci, a guest at a conference held by the Fsp police union, is met with a picket and a protest march along Corso Vittorio Emanuele II.
On 18 September 2026 former general, member of the European Parliament and Futuro Nazionale leader Roberto Vannacci speaks in Turin at the conference «Insicurezza urbana: il ruolo delle istituzioni e degli imprenditori» («Urban insecurity: the role of institutions and entrepreneurs»), organised by the Fsp police union at the Nh hotel on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II starting at 10:50 am; the guests also include Libero's deputy editor Pietro Senaldi.
In his remarks Vannacci criticises mayor Stefano Lo Russo: «A mayor is one of the first actors of security in his own city. You cannot talk about security when the mayor of Turin decides to build the second-largest Italian mosque in a district where foreigners exceed 30%». A woman who heckles him from the audience, invoking the secularity of the state, is escorted out of the hall; Vannacci calls her «rude» and «undemocratic» and says he is not bothered by the activist groups protesting outside.
Between one and two hundred people gather in front of the hotel for a picket organised by Turin's antagonist network, including the Askatasuna social centre and left-wing student collectives and movements, under a banner reading «No general for any war. Vannacci out of Turin». Some protesters display a tricolour flag with an upside-down image of Benito Mussolini and throw eggs at the police, deployed in riot gear with the police's mobile unit, a carabinieri battalion and a water cannon. The protest continues with a march of about two hundred people through the city centre and ends without clashes. Gtt reroutes lines 55, 60, 68 and Star 1 for the day, as they normally run along Corso Vittorio Emanuele II between Corso Vinzaglio and Corso Inghilterra.
The day before, Anpi issues a statement, co-signed among others by Arci, Cgil, Fiom, the Turin Anti-Fascist Coordination and Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra, calling Vannacci's presence — the only political speaker invited to the conference — «offensive» in a city awarded a gold medal for military valour. The statement recalls the Turin massacre of 18 December 1922, in which fascists killed 11 people including the secretary of the Chamber of Labour, Pietro Ferrero, as well as the killings during the Resistance of partisans Ignazio Vian, hanged on Corso Vinzaglio, Giuseppe Bravin and Giovanni Costanzo, hanged near the Stura bridge, Dante Di Nanni, killed in Borgo San Paolo, and Emanuele Artom, whose body was never found.
Related articles: Anpi, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, Roberto Vannacci, Torino, Victor Emmanuel II
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Sources
- TorinoToday — 18 September 2026
- CronacaQui Torino — 18 September 2026
- Obiettivo News — 17 September 2026