Gruppo 25 Aprile rallies round the elderly woman of calle dei Greci. Gruppo Misto counselors look for an alternative solution. G25A spokesman Gasparinetti: “Humanity has prevailed”
By Antonella Gasparini
14 May 2019
She’ll be able to celebrate her 94th birthday at home on this coming June 4th, the senior from Castello being “evicted from her home”. After having lost the property, which ended up being auctioned due to climbing expenses and lawsuits, rather than pay a costly settlement for unlawful occupation, she was ordered to give up the residence. Her story has not gone unnoticed. Gruppo 25 Aprile has rallied around the woman and her daughter, who received a visit from a judicial administrator in calle dei Greci on May 15th. G25A promised to resist with a symbolic occupation of the calle and of the staircase that leads to the apartment. In the meantime, the case ended up on the desk of the Prefect, accompanied by a letter from the group, and from there went to the Tribunale di Venezia, which has decided to suspend the police action.
A City that pulls together
They cried victory and then announced the suspension of the demonstration that had been organized for Thursday, the organization that for years has been on the front lines on questions regarding housing and living in Venice. “This situation recalls that of the lagoon city’s Ospedale Civile Santi Givoanni e Paolo – commented Gruppo 25 Aprile spokesman Marco Gasparinetti – this is a city that pulls together and wins, even if in this case it was a smaller issue. We have asked the institutions to consider the situation from the human point of view, to use their hearts, not only reason and the law. Humanity has prevailed”.
The Letter
“This situation – we read in the letter sent by the group to Prefect Vittorio Zappalorto – juxtaposes the purely economic claims of a real estate company and the claims of the heart of an aged and defenseless person who they would forcibly remove from the apartment in which she has lived for more than 30 years. […] What irreparable prejudice could prevent the delay of this eviction, and what irreparable prejudice would instead carry out the brutal uprooting of a person who will reach 94 years of age on June 4th, and who has passed the last 37 years in that apartment? This the main question to which we respectfully request your response, before authorizing the use of police and deciding on the nature of their use”. For now, the heart has won.
The Counselors
The affair ended up in the City Council as well, where counselors of the Gruppo Misto, Ottavio Serena and Renzo Scarpa moved to look for an alternative solution to the removal of the woman and her daughter, acknowledging the physical conditions that risked being provoked by a forced relocation.
“It has been arranged for the woman’s daughter to be received at Ca’ Farsetti next week – write the counselors – so that we can understand the complexity of the problem and what could be done to support these women, and to possibly provide suggestions to help engage the relevant institutions.”
Source: Venezia Today
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