Investigations were launched into four people following the sexual riots and assaults that took place at a flash mob party on Lake Garda on June 2. As the public prosecutor responsible for Verona announced on Thursday, young people with a migrant background must answer for sexual assaults on five girls on the regional train to Milan and for fights and vandalism in the city of Peschiera del Garda.
Matthias Rub
Political correspondent for Italy, Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.
On Thursday, the mayor of Verona convened a meeting of the Committee on Order and Public Safety, which was also attended by mayors of several municipalities on the south shore of Lake Garda and representatives of the regional railways. On Wednesday, Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese announced in Parliament in Rome that more police would be deployed to holiday resorts on Lake Garda to prevent potential future violent flash mob parties. In addition, surveillance cameras will be installed on the regional trains on which young people from the metropolitan areas of Turin and Milan travel to the lake. Right-wing anti-immigrant parties criticized the measures as insufficient and accused Minister Lamorgese of playing down a national phenomenon as a local problem, rather than presenting a basic strategy to prevent such events.
They wanted to “conquer” the bathing and excursion location
On “Republic Day”, 2,000 to 2,500 young people from the Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa came to Peschiera del Garda. They agreed to meet through social networks under the slogan “L’Africa à Peschiera” (Africa in Peschiera) to “conquer” the beach and excursion destination. There were fights and attacks on bathers, windows were smashed and cars were demolished. There were several wounded. On the overcrowded regional train to Milan, six women aged 16 and 17 were sexually harassed by several young men.
The abused women managed to get off the train after a good half-hour of travel at the Desenzano del Garda train station, where they lodged a complaint with the station’s police. Later, another ten women reported sexual assaults in Peschiera del Garda. The mayors of the neighboring towns of Peschiera and Desenzano accused the police headquarters of not being adequately prepared for the flash mob parties. The Lake Garda incidents have fueled debate over the failed integration of migrants from Africa and children of Maghreb immigrant families.
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After the incidents at Lake Garda, groups of young people with a migrant background known as “Baby Gangs” called for more flash mob parties on social media, for example in Riccione, near Rimini. But the announced parties did not happen.