Italy restaurants protest against economic situation

Members of the Italian Hospitality Network held spontaneous protests in several Italian cities on Saturday amid concerns that restrictions brought in to tackle the new coronavirus will negatively affect their income.

Hospitality workers in Rome protested in front of the Pantheon, wearing their uniforms with a mourning armband while they stood in silence for several minutes.

Restaurant managers and owners are worried that the safety measures they will have to adopt will not allow them to work properly and could result in financial losses for the business, as well as the income of their employees.

"You, government, state, what have you really done for us? Where are you bringing us?" asked Roberta Pepe, owner of restaurant Da Robertino.

Pepe claims the restrictions will only lead "toward the road of certain failure...because to reopen today it would be only a very sad and bitter failure for everybody."

Several activities are expected to reopen but on 18 May as the country gradually exits the lockdown brought in to tackle the new virus.

But many worry that safety measures required by the government are not going to help them to recover from the economic losses suffered since they closed.

Paolo Bianchini, co-founder of MIO (Italian Hospitality Network), said: "Today we have the problem that we are going to have an hypothetical reopening without having certain protocols for what it concerns the social distancing, the locals sanitisation and so on."

Italy has so far confirmed a total number of 31,763 deaths in the epidemic, the civil protection agency reported on Saturday.