“This is Africa.” A mob of rioters intimidated the town on Lake Garda in Italy

The Verona public prosecutor’s office is investigating suspicions of sexual harassment by young men on a crowded train from Lake Garda to Milan earlier this month. Violent incidents committed by some participants in a previous event in the town of Peschiera near this popular lake are also being investigated. The Italian Parliament must take care of the event convened through the social network TikTok under the motto “Africa in Peschiera”.

When the riots in the city died down, the mayor of the city of ten thousand Orietta Gaiulli said in astonishment: “We have lived a day of war.” According to the German Picture newspaper a crowd of young people left behind smashed storefronts, fights broke out at times and stabbings were reported. The rioters threw stones and bottles at the police. Some of the attacks targeted tourists.

The perpetrators were largely minors from migrant families from North Africa. “This is Africa,” they chanted during the party.

Around 2,000 young people attended a giant beach party in Peschiera on June 2. The Verona public prosecutor’s office is investigating suspicions of sexual harassment by young men on a crowded train from Lake Garda to Milan earlier this month. Violent incidents committed by some participants in a previous event in the town of Peschiera near this popular lake are also being investigated.

The event convened through the social network TikTok under the motto “Africa in Peschiera” must be handled by the Italian Parliament. According to the DPA and local media, many got drunk and some jumped on it cars and damaged a few local stores. One of the snaps circulating on social media shows how the group attacked a biker standing in a traffic jam caused by a crowd of party-goers and tried to rip open his co-pilot’s purse.

Police are also investigating incidents on a train in which, according to local press, some attendees at a party at Lake Garda sexually harassed young women. The daily Corriere della Sera quotes one of his parents, whose daughter is struggling to get off the crowded train, and who blames the railways for their lack of safety. According to Il Messaggero, the police arrested 30 people due to incidents on the train.

???????? ITALY ???? Thousands of immigrants unleashed hell on Peschiera del Garda _ near Verona. Vandalism, fights, clashes with the police, stabbings, families robbed, frightened tourists forced to flee. ???? The process of integrating migrants in Italy has clearly failed. ???? pic.twitter.com/eXwaxbhIYy

– ATTENTION M CHANGE ???? (@pozorzmena)
June 7, 2022

Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese also spoke to regional authorities last week about the Peschiera event, which some local media describe as a “baby gang” event. “We must pay particular attention to this and ensure that similar incidents do not happen again,” the media minister told Il Messaggero.

As the party attendees were young people with roots abroad and people waved the Moroccan flag at the party, the incidents were used by far-right Italian politicians to call for an immigration policy More Strict. League leader Matteo Salvini posted on Twitter video, which is circulating on the TikTok network as an invitation to another similar event. “Peschiera del Garda was just a warm-up round. See you in Riccione,” reads the video invitation, which features footage of the event at Lake Garda and on which the young man will then unfurl the Moroccan flag. According to local media, the first event was organized under the slogan Africa in Peschiera.