The foreign ministry must boost
security at all diplomatic offices against anarchist attacks
supporting jailed leader Alfredo Cospito's hunger strike against
his tough mafia-style prison regime, Foreign Minister Antonio
Tajani said in Florence Monday.
"This afternoon I will inform the Cabinet of the steps taken by
the Foreign Ministry to ensure the security of our diplomatic
offices abroad. We have asked to strengthen security", Tajani
told journalists on the recent wave of attacks on Italian
diplomatic offices at home and abroad.
"The attacks worry us, but this does not mean that the
government is willing to deal with those who use violence, it is
unacceptable," Tajani added, reiterating that security measures
at the foreign ministry in Rome, the Farnesina itself, will be
strengthened.
Cospito, 55, is in poor health after being on hunger striker for
over 100 days to protest against being held under the tough 41
bis jail regime usually reserved for mafia bosses.
Italian diplomatic offices in Berlin and Barcelona were
subjected to vandalism last week and anarchist groups were
engaged in violent clashes with police in the Trastevere
district of Rome on Saturday night.
A policeman was injured in those clashes and 41 people have been
cited over them.
Anarchists are also thought to have been behind a Molotov
cocktail attack on a Rome police station at the weekend. These
are only the latest in a series of such acts in Italy and abroad
linked to anarchists in recent months.
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