Union members staged a protest against a visiting Italian far-right politician at Saturday’s commemoration of the 1956 mining disaster in Marcinelle, Charleroi, in which 262 people were killed, many of them Italian. Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot criticised the action, saying the event “at times became a political platform”. His office released the statement after Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni reacted angrily to the protest.
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Unions protest against Italian far-right at Bois du Cazier memorial
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Trade unionists turned their backs as Ignazio La Russa, president of the Italian Senate and a member of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia, read out a message from party colleague Meloni. Meloni reacted angrily to the protest, calling it “a serious and shameful gesture” in a post on X.
Prévot did not comment on the unions’ stance, but said “a moment that should, first and foremost, be one of remembrance and reflection, at times became a political platform”. According to his office, this also applied to some of the speeches made at the event. He described this as “unfortunate, given the nature and solemnity of the commemoration”.
Respect for their office and for the institutions they represent is separate from political differences of opinion
La Russa is the first politician with a neo-fascist background to hold the position of president of the Senate, Italy’s second highest political office.
“Regardless of one’s views on his profile or his political positions, which are of course not the minister’s own beliefs, he was representing the Italian state on this occasion, as the country’s second-highest authority.”
The same applies to Antonella Sberna, vice-president of the European Parliament, who was at the ceremony and is also a member of Fratelli d’Italia, Prévot's cabinet said: “Respect for their office and for the institutions they represent is separate from political differences of opinion.”
A total of 262 people were killed on 8 August 1956 at the Bois du Cazier mine, after fire broke out underground. The majority of the victims were working in the mine under Belgium’s foreign worker programme. The site is now a monument to the victims and a museum, and alongside three other former mines in Wallonia is included on Unesco’s World Heritage List.