Tens of thousands protest at plans for US base in Italy

By Peter Popham in Vicenza

Published: 18 February 2007

Exactly four years after millions marched to protest at the imminent Iraq war, tens of thousands of Italians took to the streets of Vicenza yesterday to demand that plans to build a new American military base in the city be scrapped.

Dario Fo, the Nobel prize-winning author who performed a satire about the base after the march, said: "It would be in the heart of the city. In the event of a military conflict, the city itself could become a target."

The US already has a base on the city's north-west outskirts. Now it plans to build a second, in the south-east, almost doubling the number of its personnel to 4,500. The issue has become a headache for the Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, as he struggles to hold together a disparate coalition, and last month he faced a revolt from former communists in the government when he refused to put the plan on ice.

A broad coalition of citizens has united in opposition to the plan. As the march got under way, police put the numbers at 25,000, while the organisers said there were 100,000.

Italy's relationship to the US has long been a matter of acute sensitivity to the Italian left. It now has a former communist, Massimo D'Alema, as Foreign Minister, and Italy has pulled its forces out of Iraq. Last week it withstood renewed pressure from President Bush to play a more active role in Afghanistan.