The murderous state, presumed innocent
Friday 31 July 2026, by Stéfanie Prezioso
The death of Abderrahim Fakir in a working-class neighborhood of Bologna on Sunday, July 20, sparked outrage, leading thousands of people to demonstrate to demand “Truth and Justice”; this death is reminiscent of that of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020…
Shooting Burglars in the Back
On July 15, 2026, Mario Roggero was definitively sentenced to 14 years and 9 months in prison for killing two of the three burglars who had attacked his jewelry store, armed with a toy gun and a knife, as they were fleeing. The footage is crystal clear: the robbers had already left the store, were not threatening anyone, and the jeweler shot them multiple times.
The entire right and far-right of the government are rallying around Roggero, who is seeking a presidential pardon—already supported by Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, outside any legal framework. Matteo Salvini says he is considering running him as a candidate in the next elections in order to grant him parliamentary immunity. The League is taking this opportunity to introduce a bill that has been a priority for the party since at least the 2018 elections, aimed at expanding Article 52 of the Penal Code, which deals with self-defense.
Congressman Claudio Borghi has thus introduced this proposal:
“Any reaction to a criminal act is not punishable, regardless of the proportionality of the means used, the persistence of the danger, and the strictly defensive nature of the conduct.”
Giorgia Meloni, for her part, was quick to declare that the sentence was disproportionate. Mario Roggero has quickly become the “national hero” of Italy’s right-wing and far-right political spectrum, which remains firmly in power in the absence of serious opposition.
As for Elon Musk, he is waging a campaign on X against the Italian judges, who he claims should “be imprisoned” for handing down this verdict—in the same vein as his support for Marine Le Pen (“the only hope for France”), whom he claims is a victim of the French justice system.
Rise in police violence
On July 17, 2026, several hundred people protested in Venice against the U.S. Ambassador to Italy, Tilman Fertitta, whose mega-yacht — 117 meters long and 30 meters high, as imposing as a six-story building — had dropped anchor right in the middle of the Festa del Redentore, one of the city’s most important festivals, partially blocking residents’ access to the fireworks display. The protesters, dressed in children’s swim rings (frogs, unicorns, and turtles), were violently charged by the police.
On July 19, Abderrahim Fakir, a 43-year-old Moroccan national who had arrived in Italy from Casablanca at the age of 7, was killed by two police officers in Bologna, in the working-class neighborhood of Pilastro; there, too, the images are as clear as they are unbearable: wounded in the head and in a state of confusion, he pleads for help while two police officers hold him down, handcuffed and facing the ground, after spraying pepper spray in his face; four paramedics watch this man die without intervening… Remember, “I can’t breathe,” said George Floyd, just before he died in Minneapolis.
On July 20, following the violent death of Abderrahim Fakir, a massive crowd flooded the streets of Bologna, called out by the Democratic Party mayor, Matteo Lepore, to demand truth and justice—while, for the first time since the Security Decree-Law, pushed by the Meloni government, went into effect, police officers and healthcare workers were protected by the “criminal immunity shield” (a more radical law on the presumption of legality for law enforcement shootings had just been passed by the French Parliament by a vote of 313 to 199, supported by the National Rally, The Republicans, and Macron’s supporters). Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi then felt compelled to argue that Italy was not a “police state”…
A license to kill?
As Cecchino Antonini explains:
The security decree also expands the ‘criminal shield’ for law enforcement, that is, the legal protections for officers who commit offenses in the line of duty under circumstances of necessity. Following President Mattarella’s remarks, the government clarified that this protection applies not only to officers but to anyone in similar circumstances. Indeed, it is worded more cautiously: any person who commits an offense when there is an “obvious cause for justification” is not entered into the ordinary registry of persons under investigation, but into a separate registry, with an expedited procedure that should result in the case being dismissed within thirty days, unless the prosecutor decides otherwise. Politically, this measure introduces a principle of preventive legitimization of the use of force, and the “shield” risks having selective effects by further exposing people considered foreign or marginalized, such as young people and migrants.
French law is more radical, as it involves a reversal of the burden of proof by presuming the legality of the act from the outset—which is legally far more radical, and it is precisely this that has led opponents to label the French law a “license to kill.”
Democracy Gutted
Democracy thwarted, democracy suspended, democracy gutted: a new political era is dawning in Italy, the United States, and also in France. The piece-by-piece construction of an absolutist governmental sovereignty, which is taking hold by methodically disarming each of the powers that could stand in its way.
The methods may differ on either side of the Atlantic, but the goals remain hopelessly the same: to strip constitutions of their meaning; to undermine elections (in Italy by proposing a new electoral law that, by combining a disproportionate majority bonus with closed-list systems, guarantees an overwhelming majority for the outgoing right-wing and far-right coalition while giving party leaders the de facto power to decide who sits in Parliament; in the United States, by already doing everything possible to hinder the exercise of the popular vote, and even contesting the results of the midterm elections—as Donald Trump did in his latest speech); undermining the “red” judiciary; attacking democratic freedoms and rights; targeting migrants—and with them, all the exploited—by promoting mass deportation, and incarceration; ensuring control over a single narrative by curtailing the right to information and freedom of expression.
Such is the case with the various attempts to silence the press (Trump attacks television networks and newspapers), which becomes merely a conduit for a single narrative (a report by a RAI journalist on the death of Abderrahim Fakir was censored by the network). Taken together, these policies paint a picture of the future: the transfer of all legitimate decision-making to a single center, with no authority left capable of challenging it, and the gradual, almost silent erosion of any institutional or social countervailing power.
This is a gradual shift of the political center of gravity toward a head of government (a monarch and his inner circle) whose actions must be free of any obstacles. A process that began around the turn of the 2000s in Italy and is now accelerating on the Peninsula and elsewhere. On July 20, the rising figure to the right of Giorgia Meloni, General Roberto Vannacci, with his new party “Futuro Nazionale”—which he describes as the “true right” campaigning for “remigration ”—illustrated his “project” by posting a AI video on social depicting the killing, against the backdrop of the Roman Empire, of Elly Schlein of the Democratic Party and Giuseppe Conte of the Five Star Movement.
In the face of increasingly authoritarian states: 0rganize and fight
On July 16, 2026, under the leadership of Marco Rubio, a “global” summit was held, bringing together more than sixty countries. Its focus: the “resurgence of political terrorism”; Italy sent its Undersecretary of State for the Interior, Nicola Molteni, a member of the Lega. “Political terrorism” is a concept first introduced by the Nixon administration in the context of the Vietnam War, targeting primarily left-wing organizations (ranging from those fighting for civil rights to the Black Panthers).
Today, it has been revived by the security decree “Combating Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence” (NSPM-7), on the basis of which the first harsh prison sentences have already been handed down in Texas. This “Antifa Summit” introduced the new concept of “far-left terrorism,” (FLT) which, as stated in a White House press release, must “will be treated with the same seriousness and ferocity the world has long reserved for jihadist terrorism.”
Following this summit, the U.S. State Department released a new report on Cuba’s “campaign of subversion against the United States” which reads like a blacklist of left-wing groups and activists: “Many of the most significant upheavals in recent American political history — from the George Floyd riots to the rise of Antifa to the explosion of pro-terrorist activism on American college campuses — can be linked, in some way, shape, or form, to Cuban influence.” [1] The list includes New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Democracy Now! journalist Amy Goodman, Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, as well as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Black Lives Matter…
The steamroller of the powerful right-wing coalition has begun rolling right before our eyes, brandishing the specter of its old demons—the “Reds”—in the face of any social resistance. Its real goal, is to undermine our hard-won freedoms and rights by criminalizing those who are fighting today for equality and emancipation.
Marx and Engels wrote as early as 1847:
A specter is haunting Europe—the specter of Communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter; Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French radicals and German police spies.
Today, the powerful of this world—whether they call themselves centrists, right-wingers, or far-right—have resumed this fight with redoubled energy against democracy, which hinders their absolute freedom to enrich themselves as they see fit.
It is therefore time to move from the spontaneous organization of resistance to sustainable forms of organization, uniting labor, feminist, anti-racist, and environmental movements on a democratic, class-based foundation, clearly defending an inalienable set of rights and social demands aimed at equality and the collective ownership of our common goods. To achieve this, we must rebuild ties across borders by reviving a militant, enduring internationalism.
The total state is on the march. It is up to us to grasp the full extent of this reality and equip ourselves to counter it by situating our struggles today within the long-standing fight of the working classes for democracy and social justice.
23 July 2026
Translated by New Politics from marx21.ch.
Footnotes
[1] See Ken Klippenstein “After "Political Terrorism" Summit, U.S. Names 43 Americans + Groups”.
Stéfanie Prezioso
Stéfanie Prezioso is a Swiss-Italian historian, professor of contemporary history at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Lausanne, and a specialist in twentieth-century fascism and antifascism. She is a member of the movement solidaritéS (Switzerland) and sat in the Swiss National Council from December 2019 to December 2023 on the Ensemble à Gauche list.
Face Down in Bologna: Abderrahim Fakir and Meloni’s Expanding Security State
Art by Gianluca Costantini
On July 19, 2026, in the working-class Pilastro neighborhood of Bologna, a 42-year-old Moroccan-origin man named Abderrahim Fakir died face-down on the asphalt of Via Svevo while police restrained him. The video is unmistakable. Two officers pin him to the ground, forcing his hands behind his back. Pepper spray has already been used. A civilian helps hold his ankles. Fakir’s voice cuts through the footage, raw and desperate: “Basta, aiuto! Basta!” Help. Enough. Medical personnel stand nearby and do not intervene until he has stopped moving. He never gets up.
The images immediately evoked George Floyd. Protesters gathered in Pilastro within hours, kneeling with fists raised, chanting that this was a state killing. The comparison is not rhetorical excess. The mechanics of death — prolonged prone restraint, compression of the chest, a man begging for air while the weight of the state holds him down — are the same. Preliminary autopsy findings report blood in the lungs and clear signs of crushing and compression. The family lawyer has stated that the evidence points to asphyxia from that compression. Full toxicological and histological results will take up to ninety days. Two police officers and four medical workers are under investigation for involuntary manslaughter. Head and facial injuries have also been noted.
Fakir was not an undocumented newcomer. He was a long-term regular resident of Italy and the owner of a small moving company. In the weeks before his death he had sought psychiatric care, first at a hospital emergency room on June 20 and then through visits to a mental health center. The state that failed to protect him in life was present and decisive in the final minutes of it.
Art by Gianluca Costantini
This killing did not occur in a vacuum. It takes place against the backdrop of a deliberate and accelerating hardening of the Italian security apparatus under Giorgia Meloni’s government, an apparatus that has spent the last two years systematically expanding the criminalization of protest, dissent, and even youth itself.
The 2025 Decreto Sicurezza, later converted into law, marked a qualitative shift. Blocking a road or railway with one’s own body, once treated as an administrative offense, was turned into a criminal act. Alone, the penalty can reach one month in prison or a fine. When done by more than one person, as in any actual demonstration, the sentence jumps to six months to two years. Damage during protests carries heavier penalties. New “revolt” offenses were created for prisons and migrant detention centers, criminalizing even passive resistance to orders. The law was written with climate activists, social movements, and anti-eviction organizers in its crosshairs. Amnesty International and other human rights groups warned at the time that it would create a hostile environment for peaceful protest. Those warnings have proven accurate. Activists now face cascading fines, rapid criminal charges, and the constant threat of prison for tactics that were previously treated as civil disobedience.
In 2026 the government pushed further. Additional measures tightened the net. On July 23, just days after Fakir’s death, Meloni’s cabinet approved a bill that reverses the burden of proof for the criminal responsibility of minors aged 14 to 18. Under the new proposal, young people in that age range are presumed to understand the nature and consequences of their actions unless they can prove otherwise. Meloni framed it in classic law-and-order language: “Those who do wrong must be held to account, even if they are minors.” The measure is sold as a response to youth crime and the so-called “maranza” phenomenon, but its effect is to pull teenagers deeper into the adult punitive system and to expand the state’s capacity to process, detain, and criminalize the young.
At the same time, the government has advanced legislation adopting the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, including its highly contested examples that treat certain forms of criticism of the State of Israel as antisemitic. The Senate approved a version of the bill in March 2026 and sent it to the Chamber. Critics, including Amnesty International and a long list of human rights organizations, have warned that embedding this definition into Italian law risks transforming legitimate political speech and protest against Israeli policy into potential criminal or administrative targets. In a country where dockworkers have blocked arms shipments and where solidarity with Palestine has been one of the most vibrant expressions of grassroots politics, the message is clear: the boundaries of acceptable dissent are being redrawn by the state.
These legal and political developments do not stand alone. They sit within a longer history of security cooperation between Italy and Israel. For two decades a bilateral military memorandum of understanding facilitated exchanges in training, technology, joint exercises, and the organization of armed forces. Italian police cooperation with Israeli counterparts has been publicly described by the Polizia di Stato itself as consolidated and productive. Although Meloni’s government suspended the automatic renewal of the defense agreement in April 2026 amid the ongoing war on Gaza, the prior years of partnership formed part of a wider international pattern. Israeli security forces, including the IDF and national police, have for years trained foreign law enforcement agencies—especially in the United States but also elsewhere—in tactics developed under conditions of prolonged military occupation and population control. These exchanges have focused on crowd control, use of force, surveillance, and methods of rapid dominance. Critics of these programs have long argued that techniques refined against a captive civilian population travel outward, contributing to the militarization of ordinary policing and to forms of restraint that treat the human body as something to be immobilized at all costs. The prolonged prone restraint that killed both George Floyd and Abderrahim Fakir belongs to this broader repertoire of control, one that has been circulated through international training circuits even when direct lines of transmission remain difficult to document in any single case.
These are not isolated technical adjustments. They form a coherent project. The same government that expands police powers, criminalizes the physical occupation of public space by protesters, lowers the threshold for treating teenagers as fully responsible adults, and moves to police speech about Israel is the government under which a man can be pinned to the ground in a Bologna street until he stops breathing. The continuity is not accidental. It is the logical outcome of a politics that treats security as the highest value and treats dissent, especially from below, from immigrants, from the young, and from those who challenge the prevailing order, as a threat to be managed by force and by law.
There is an international dimension. Meloni’s Italy has aligned itself with the authoritarian turn visible in the second Trump administration, sharing a language of order, of “those who do wrong,” and of the need to restore hierarchy against movements from below. The Italian security state and the American one are not identical, but they are increasingly speaking the same dialect, and both have drawn, in different degrees, on models of control refined in the laboratories of occupation.
The people of Pilastro and of Bologna did not wait for the autopsy results or the political explanations. They took to the streets. They named what they saw. They connected the death of one man to a larger machinery of repression. That connection remains the necessary starting point for any serious accounting.
Abderrahim Fakir’s death is an Italian tragedy, but it is not an isolated one. It belongs to a growing international tapestry of repression in which states, facing movements that refuse to accept the prevailing order, respond by expanding the reach of police power, narrowing the space for protest, circulating militarized methods of control, and treating the lives of the marginalized as expendable. Justice for Fakir requires more than an investigation into two officers and four medics. It requires a confrontation with the political project that made his death possible and that continues to expand.
Michael Leonardi lives in Italy and can be reached at michaeleleonardi@gmail.com
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