Widows honor crisis suicides in Bologna
'Govt must check its conscience'
04 May, 14:57
"The (tax collectors) won't show themselves," said Tiziana Marrone, Campanniello's widow, who helped organize the event.
"You don't see anyone. Well done. Bravo. Perhaps silence is louder than words". Joblessness is driving nearly one person every day to commit suicide in Italy, the majority of whom are men, according to the Eures think tank.
Small-business owners and artisans are also succumbing to suicide amid the weakened economy and austerity measures.
According to CGIA, an association of artisans and small businessmen, 32 entrepreneurs have taken their own lives since the beginning of 2012, mostly due to the economic crisis.
At one point in the march, demonstrators stopped to applaud in front of Campaniello's home.
"Italy doesn't want to end up like Greece," said Marrone.
"There have been too many suicides since the beginning of the year". Organizers said that a book on suicides amid the crisis was in the works and that proceeds would go to victims' families.
Demonstrators were vocally critical of the austerity measures in Premier Mario Monti's so-called 'Save Italy' package, passed when the country was at the centre of the euro crisis in November.
Elisabetta Bianchi, who co-organized the event, said the measures have so far disproportionately burdened the working class. "We are asking the government to change the laws, to check its conscience," she said. "People have a right to be treated like human beings, which doesn't happen anymore".
Saturday, 5 May 2012
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(ANSA) - Bologna, May 4 - A gathering of widows marched in Bologna Friday to honor the numerous deaths of Italians who have killed themselves out of despair from Italy's economic crisis. Roughly 100 people carried white banners in a procession from the hospital to the tax agency where 58-year-old craftsman Giuseppe Campaniello, exasperated by a fiscal dispute, set himself on fire and died from burns on 100% of his body in March.
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