Students march to Italy’s senate to protest education cuts

Hundreds of students marched through the streets of the Italian capital Rome on Wednesday to protest against a bill put forward by the Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini, which proposes to cut funds and jobs at various levels of the Italian school system. Marchers passed through Piazza Venezia and then on to Piazza Colonna, where one protester, addressing the crowd through a megaphone, declared "Today the future is ours and we are taking it back." Many in the crowd responded with cheers. Arriving at the Italian Senate, some protesters managed to push through the entrance, which was being protected by only two policeman. Other protesters stayed outside the building yelling: "Shame, shame!" The bill reforming the school system is currently being discussed in the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies. Hundreds of students had also gathered in central Rome the previous Wednesday for protests that student unions had hoped would hold off any government plans to place further cuts on education funding. On that occasion students marched through the streets to the Montecitorio, the seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, where they let off flares and chanted for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to resign.—AP