Furious motorists come close to blows with eco protesters, pushing them to ground and dragging them away as they bring traffic to a halt for another day in Rome
- Drivers threw insults at eco activists as they sat in front of their cars in Rome
- One motorist who told them to move said his sick mother was in the car with him
- Another motorist is seen pushing a protestor to the ground in a close encounter
- They finally cleared the road for an ambulance, unblocking the motorway
Angry motorists pushed over eco protestors and dragged them off the road in an attempt to unblock traffic after they sat down in the middle of the motorway in Rome.
Eco protestors have been blocking highways across Europe, prompting scuffles as the protestors clash with drivers trying to get to work and keep appointments.
One motorist with grey hair and glasses can be heard saying in Italian that his mother suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, a rare type of arthritis, and is in the car with him.
He can be seen grabbing a female protestor and dragging her across the road, shouting: ‘You’ve f****d me off now, my mother is in the car ill.’
At one point, a motorist pushes a protestor to the ground, with the encounter looking close to turning violent.
In another close moment, a driver accelerates into a protestor blocking their path, who moves out of the way to avoid being run over.
The motorists threw insults at the activists as they repositioned themselves in front of the cars
A motorist in Rome is pictured moments before he pushes an eco protestor to the ground for blocking the motorway, with the encounter looking close to turning violent
A driver accelerates into a protestor blocking their path (left), who moves out of the way. Eco protestors have been blocking highways across Europe, prompting scuffles as the protestors clash with those with cars on the road. Shortly after, the angry drivers tore away the banner which the eco protestors had brought to illustrate their reason for blocking the road (right)
A female activist who appeared to be taking an active role in negotiating with the motorists told the man he needed to stay calm and cooperate.
Another motorist shouted in the women’s face: ‘Let’s create 18 nuclear plants and we can solve the problem this way.’
She shook her said saying: ‘No, we need to resolve this now!’
The motorists continued to insult the activists as they repositioned themselves in front of the cars.
‘Let’s get rid of this banner for f*** sake, I need to go to work, I don’t care what you’re doing here,’ said another angry motorist, tearing away the banner explaining their cause.
‘There’s no water and there will be no food too,’ retorted the protestor.
The eco protestors finally moved out of the way when an ambulance arrived, unblocking the motorway.
‘Whenever they decide to arrest them all, it will always be too late,’ said one commenter, responding to the video on Twitter.
‘The man who talked about the 18 nuclear power plants is the only environmentalist I see in this video,’ said another commenter in Italian.
Only days ago, protesters sat in the middle of the Via Guglielmo Marcon in Rome holding banners aloft as part of Ultima Generazione, Italian for Last Generation, demonstrations.
A furious driver is pictured confronting a protester holding a banner while blocking one of the busiest roads in Rome on October 31
A protester sits with her hands aloft as a car tries to drive around a group of eco-zealots blocking the road on October 31
‘Ultima Generazione’ demands the reopening of disused coal plants and cancel the project of new drilling for the research and extraction of natural gas
The ‘civil disobedience’ movement was borne from Extinction Rebellion and the independent ‘Ultima Generazioneâ’ last year.
The protesters are demanding that disused coal plants be reopened and calling for a halt to a new drilling project for the research into and extraction of natural gas.
Environmental protesters glued themselves to glass protecting Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera which was on display at an art gallery in Florence in July.
On October 13, Just Stop Oil activists glued themselves to the road at a major roundabout in south London during rush hour.
The roadblock was their 13th day in a row of protests which have now resulted in more than 350 arrests.