( Breitbart )
Thousands of restaurants have opened in Italy in defiance of the country’s strict Chinese coronavirus lockdown regulations. The mass civil disobedience campaign — launched under the hashtag #IoApro (#IOpen) — has seen as many as 50,000 restaurants opening despite evening curfew restrictions.
Here is one restaurant owner announcing his intentions to defy the lockdown:
🇹 Italy. 50,000 restauranteurs have decided to open up against Covid19 restrictions, lunch and dinner, banding together to form an alliance. This is the only way to stop this, mass civil disobedience. Long Live the People 💥👊 pic.twitter.com/z9ItL0KHaO — ✖️TIME ✖️2✖️RISE✖️ (@itstime2rise) January 11, 2021
Here is Italian opposition MP Vittorio Sgarbi expressing his support for the movement and calling for an insurrection against government restrictions on businesses. He says: “Open up and don’t worry. In the end we will make them eat their fines”:
A very angry Italian opposition MP (@VittorioSgarbi) backs the #IoApro (#IOpen) movement & calls for an insurrection against government restrictions on businesses, he says "Open up, & don't worry, in the end we will make them eat their fines". The revolution starts tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/E03qAnviGw — Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti) January 14, 2021
This footage purportedly shows police in Milan trying to close a reopened restaurant and being driven off by customers:
"Civil disobedience" tonight in Milan as Italians sick of the Coronavirus lockdown, reopened restaurants anyway& full of customers enjoying life again. Police tried to prevent it but were outnumbered and chased off by the customers.@MoriartyProfJ @JamesDelingpole @simondolan pic.twitter.com/X05ySepPdw — AnnaAC (@Anna_A_C) January 16, 2021
This footage purportedly shows similar scenes in Bologna, as police are driven away to cries of “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!”:
BOLOGNA, ITALY: Customers escort police out of the #IoApro restaurant under the cries of "Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!" pic.twitter.com/XDxLctTGYR — Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti) January 16, 2021
Italy is not the only country where resistance to the lockdown is growing. There is a similar campaign in Poland under the hashtag #otwieraMY:
Po wyroku WSA w Opolu (sygn.akt II SA/Op 219/20), już od kilku dni, dziesiątki odważnych ludzi w całym kraju sprzeciwiło się niszczącym działaniom nie-rządu, wznawiając swoją działalność mimo bezprawnego „zakazu”. Lawina rusza. Wspierajmy proszę tych, którzy się odważyli 🇵🇱 — #OtwieraMY (@otwieramy) January 11, 2021
Among the Polish businesses planning to open in defiance of the country’s strict lockdown are those in the ski resorts of the Tatra mountains.
“We will end this madness… which wants to destroy Poland and Polishness, destroy the middle class, small and medium-sized enterprises and kill several hundred people a day,” said Sebastian Pitoń, the ad hoc leader of the Górlaskie Veto — Highlanders’ Veto — movement, which claims to represent around 200 businesses.
“I hope our action… will make all of central Europe get off this crazy train which is heading for destruction,” Pitoń said, addressing journalists while wearing the traditional dress of Poland’s southern highlanders.