Photos of the protests against Matteo Salvini in Bologna

The League leader Matteo Salvini has opened, in the PalaDozza of Bologna, the electoral campaign for Lucia Borgonzoni, candidate of the center-right to Emilia-Romagna governor for the regional elections of 26 January 2020. Together with him in the building, which can accommodate 5.570 people, there were the presidents of the regions led by the League: Christian Solinas of Sardinia, Attilio Fontana of Lombardy, Luca Zaia of the Veneto, Donatella Tesei of Umbria.

Salvini was challenged by two counter-demonstrations: a peaceful in Piazza Maggiore of six thousand people, according to the organizers, and the procession of social centers which, he writes Republic, has gathered at least two thousand people. The procession, with demonstrators throwing bottles, objects and fireworks, started from Piazza San Francesco and tried to reach the building before being stopped with the water cannons by the police in riot gear. There was also a garrison of anarchists, about 50 people cycling at Porta Lame. Salvini commented on the protests saying that "if they are peaceful, they are welcome", but he also called the protesters "thugs" and "criminals".