It could have been any other day, in any other country. But this story takes place in Bologna, in the region of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy.

Four friends, all in their thirties, sat around a table, one autumn evening, talking about the future of their country, its politics and the upcoming regional election. As in conversations of the kind, there was exasperation and lament. But there was also a sense of urgency.

Matteo Salvini, a far right political leader was due to arrive in the city to hold a public meeting of a few thousand people to campaign for his party’s candidate for the upcoming elections. Bologna is known for its historic allegiance to the left which took a surprising shift towards the centre-right in the last general elections. This upcoming election, therefore, is crucial and, if Salvini and his allies win, it could topple a weak coalition in Rome.

This is what worries Mattia Santori, Andrea Garreffa, Giulia Trappoloni and Roberto Morotti, the four friends who, over their conversation together, came up with a plan to give voice to their grievances.

Could an Italian citizens’ movement to reclaim public space from far-right populists offer a model for others around the world?

With only six days left to Salvini’s public rally, they called for a flash mob to descend upon Bologna’s largest town square to coincide with his event. They launched a social media campaign, gave the protest a name, laid out its purpose and also set some strict rules.

People were invited to join in if they stood against the politics of populism, polarisation and hate, but they would chant no party slogans, bring no banners or placards. Just paper cut designs of sardines.

Sardines? This is was actually derived from the goal of this political expression.

The goal was clear: a sports building where Salvini’s event was to be held had a capacity of maximum 5,700 people. Could they top that and get 6,000 people to pack into the town square like sardines?

It sounded like a tall order but it was perfectly delivered. Around 15,000 people showed up, with no greater ambition than to be counted. And to be called, ‘the Sardines’.

‘We are sardines and you will find us everywhere’

“Bravi! Bravi!” the crowd chanted as the enthusiastic four took centre stage — beaming and incredulous at what they had achieved. “We have won,” Santori said to the crowd, “perhaps not the war but the battle indeed.”

“Raise your hands if you haven’t come down to the piazza like this in years?”

Taking back the town squares is symbolic of reclaiming the political narrative. There is high drama in the idea. “We are here to give a sense of contrast to the climate of hate in Italy,” a young woman says. “This protest alone will not do anything. But we want to be counted.”

Within two weeks of the Bologna demonstration, thousands of Sardines packed tightly into piazza after piazza across Italy’s towns and cities — Modena, Palermo,

Reggio Emilia, Florence, Rimini, Piacenza, Verona, Genova, Mantoua, Milan, etc — with a final demonstration being held yesterday in Rome on December 14.

‘Welcome to the Open Sea’

In their statement issued after the Bologna demonstration, the Sardines invited populists to the open sea. For the politically conscious Italian, the open sea is more than a sardine analogy. Immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and the dreadful number of lives lost in the Mediterranean on their way to Italian shores, are all crucial issues in the country.

It was a campaign run on these issues that helped Salvini, the leader of a previously peripheral, divisive party win an important position with the coalition government, allowing him to pass controversial laws that shut Italy’s ports to refugee ships and later, also to those helping to rescue refugees at sea.

After the collapse of the 15-month coalition government, Salvini is no longer in power. Why does he even matter then?

He matters because he matters to a lot of Italians. With or without an official role, Salvini is considered Italy’s most popular political leader today.

‘We believe in Politics and Politicians with a Capital P’

What happens when a country is divided between the politics of division and inclusion or to bring the point closer to home, between the powers of authoritarianism and democracy? What are the core values that cross even seemingly impenetrable boundaries?

In Italy, it is the process, with a Capital P.

Any stereotype of Italians includes their weariness with their politicians, corruption in their leadership, and the role of the mafia in power laundering. This is a country disillusioned by what its politicians offer and aware of their ineptitude and dishonesty. Governments rarely complete their term and the names of prime ministers that come and go change far too often to keep up with. Yet, Italians don’t lose faith in the political process. They still turn up to vote in large numbers on election day (73 percent voter turnout at the last national election, 75 percent in the one before), even if that day comes more frequently than it should. While they get angry with politicians and all their dirty business, they never question the process of democracy as a system.

This sentiment is voiced also by the Sardine movement. The people packed in the squares are not disillusioned by politics, they consider themselves to be a rightful progeny of the process.

‘We went down to a square, we looked into each other’s eyes, we counted each other’

On a dark Sunday afternoon, in Salvini’s hometown of Milan, 15,000 Sardines gathered in the beating rain and biting cold outside the Milano Duomo. Under soaked umbrellas, people in the square sang Bella Ciao and the Italian national anthem, holding up plastic covered sardines, and were regularly seen bobbing up and down, every time someone shouted, “the one who doesn’t jump is a fascist!”

I attended the rally in part to compensate for my absence at the Student Solidarity March in Pakistan and the many causes being debated at home. My British friend Rachael was with me, herself worried about the politics of exclusion in her country and the crucial election ahead. We both found our voices missing from our own countries, but took solace in sharing space at a rally in a third country, surrounded by people who spoke of similar ideals. Such is the state of the world today. A demonstration apparently instigated in response to local events has the power to speak to the politics of polarisation and discrimination across countries.

‘Dear populists, you got it: the party is over’

Not just yet. The real test of power, of course, lies at the ballot.

The sudden birth of this grassroots movement has stirred the imaginations of television talk shows; journalists and pundits alike want to know: What is the movement going to become? Where is the leadership? How will they bring change? Are they running for elections?

The Sardines don’t have a leader. They are not a political party. Much of the movement’s success will depend on whether its enthusiasm will be able to energise an electorate.

But what if it doesn’t?

The Guardian, in its editorial on November 27, calls the Sardine demonstrations “politics with panache” that can defeat the far right, not only in Italy but “offer a model that could be emulated elsewhere.”

In this glass-half-full scenario, four disgruntled friends who decide to act upon their grievances will not be enough. Thousands more must come out, city after city, just to be counted.

The writer is a former television producer based in Italy

Published in Dawn, EOS, December 15th, 2019