The couple’s lavish wedding in Venice, which has attracted the support of numerous activist groups, has taken place ahead of the multibillionaire Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s lavish wedding.
Two security boats were waiting for Bezos and Sanchez on Wednesday at the Aman Hotel, a five-star hotel on the Grand Canal, as they arrived in a water taxi.
Residents claim the lavish event exemplifies how their needs are ignored in the era of mass tourism to the historic and iconic lagoon city, and it has drawn protests from groups who view it as a sign of the growing disparity between the haves and have-nots.
About a dozen Venetian organizations have joined together to protest the multi-day event under the slogan “No Space for Bezos,” a play on words used to refer to the bride’s recent space flight. These include housing advocates, anti-cruise ship campaigners, and university groups.
They have set up small-scale demonstrations, placing anti-Bezos banners on renowned Venetian sites. Greenpeace and the British charity “Everyone Hates Elon,” which has reportedly smashed Tesla cars in protest of Elon Musk, joined them on Monday to protest allegedly provided billionaire tax breaks.
A mannequin of Bezos clinging onto an Amazon box and his fists full of fake dollars was displayed on a float down the Grand Canal on Wednesday. The stunt was not a protest against the wedding, but rather against unchecked wealth, media control, and the expansion of public space privatization, according to the British publicity firm that made the announcement.
Bezos’s representatives haven’t commented on the protests.
The local activists had planned a more well-organized protest for Saturday that would block boats’ access to canals to impede traffic to a wedding venue.
Federica Toninello, an activist for the Social Housing Assembly network, predicted a “strong, decisive protest, but peaceful” demonstration. We want it to be like a party with music in order to show how our Venice should look.
Mick Jagger, Ivanka Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry, and Leonardo DiCaprio are among the 200 guests who have confirmed to be guests at the wedding.
Venice, a city known for its romantic canal views, hosts hundreds of weddings annually, not the least of which are those of the wealthy and famous. The general public embraced prior celebrity weddings, such as those involving George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin in 2014. At City Hall, hundreds turned out to wish the couple well.
Tommaso Cacciari, a prominent figure in the movement that successfully advocated for the ban on cruise ships over 25, 000 tons traveling through the Giudecca Canal in central Venice, said Bezos has a different political and business profile.
Source: Aljazeera
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