A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #7-26 - Polishing the stage - obscuring dissent. Sanremo: fossil sponsors, expulsion orders, and counter-melodies (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

If the Sanremo Festival is truly-as it is every year-"a mirror of the 
country," the image reflected this year is clear. On one side, the blue 
carpet in front of the Ariston Theater, illuminated and branded by the 
main sponsors: Eni and Costa Crociere. On the other, thirteen members of 
Extinction Rebellion were taken to the police station, held for over six 
hours, and then given expulsion orders ranging from one to three years 
for displaying anti-greenwashing signs. In the middle, a phrase that 
carries more weight than any refrain: "You have no rights when you're in 
police custody."

Greenwashing in prime time
The action lasted just a few minutes. Ironic signs, based on the titles 
of the competing songs, denounced the image-cleaning operation of fossil 
fuel multinationals that are investing increasingly heavily in cultural 
sponsorship. The mechanism is well known: extraction, burning, and 
fossil fuel navigation continue, but culture, sports, and entertainment 
are funded. The brand is associated with the national holiday. The 
climate crisis remains off-screen. This isn't philanthropy. It's 
normalization.

Since 1951, Sanremo has been building collective imaginations. While 
individual emotion is celebrated on stage, an economic model that is 
structurally co-responsible for the ecological crisis is consolidated on 
the catwalk.

Expulsion orders for a peaceful protest
After the arrest-defined as "identifying" despite the people having 
already identified themselves-there were complaints for unannounced 
demonstration (Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Public Safety) and 
non-compliance (Article 650 of the Criminal Code), in addition to 
mandatory expulsion orders. This measure, born out of anti-mafia 
efforts, was applied to those displaying small banners. All this while 
the new security decree was coming into force, further tightening 
penalties and fines for those demonstrating without warning or 
"disrupting" public events. Dissent isn't openly banned. It's made 
costly. Risky. Expelable.
The officer's phrase-"we'll see about rights later"-captures a political 
climate in which freedom is no longer a prerequisite, but a deferred 
concession.

The Other Sanremo
Yet the city isn't just blue carpets and sponsors. A few streets from 
the Ariston, in the Invisible City, among the works of Palestinian 
children in the "HEaRT of GAZA" exhibition, Alessio Lega sang. An 
anarchist singer-songwriter and longtime contributor to A Rivista 
Anarchica, Lega belongs to a tradition that doesn't consider music a 
commodity to be shared, but a tool for memory and choice. While on the 
official stage, war remains a generic emotion or prudent silence, there, 
Gaza has a name. It has faces. It has children's drawings. While the 
Festival celebrates sponsored national unity, the counter-concert 
reopens the conflict: climatic, colonial, social.

Faithful Mirror, Visible Cracks
If Sanremo is truly a mirror of the country, then it reflects a very 
precise balance: fossil fuel multinationals financing the national 
festival; dissent treated as an obstacle to be removed quickly; 
administrative measures designed to target organized crime applied to 
those displaying signs; rights evoked as formalities, suspendable "in 
the meantime."
The message is simple: the show must go on. The fossil fuel industry's 
brand can parade. The climate crisis cannot be stopped. The rhetoric of 
freedom can shine. An unauthorized protest cannot disturb it. And yet, a 
few streets away, a concert for Gaza reminds us that culture can still 
choose a side. That music is not just the soundtrack of consensus, but 
can also become a counterpoint. The Festival portrays an Italy that 
wants to appear united, peaceful, and radiant. The expulsions, the 
expulsion orders, the phrase "you have no rights" portray another Italy: 
more nervous, more authoritarian, more fragile. Perhaps the true mirror 
is not the Ariston stage. They're the cracks that open at the edges.
And that's where, sooner or later, the air comes in.

Totò Caggese

https://umanitanova.org/lucidare-il-palco-oscurare-il-dissenso-sanremo-sponsor-fossili-fogli-di-via-e-controcanti/
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