Italy: New Year's Eve in Florence

In Europe, New Year’s Eve was difficult, to say the least. The worst incident happened in Switzerland, where out-of-control celebrants accidentally set fire to the roof of a nightclub. The death toll is over 40.

Meanwhile, the usual riots and torched cars broke out all over France. There were riots in Dutch cities as well as in Germany.

In Florence, young men described as North Africans engaged in a mega brawl in front of the famed cathedral (Il Duomo). The article below from Il Tempo, translated by Fousesquawk, has a brief video of the incident.

Shocking video, the mega brawl by foreigners in Piazza Duomo (Cathedral Square) in Florence

January 2, 2026

Foreigners rampaging in Cathedral Square on New Year’s Eve. Around 12:40 am, some 20 youths of Maghrebian (North African) origin started a violent brawl, using tables, chairs, and bottles. The incident began in Republic Square and then moved to a pizzeria in Cathedral Square. The outside of the location was vandalized. During the brawl, a bottle was thrown inside, fortunately without hitting any of the employees. Law enforcement intervened at the location to report the situation under control. In these images, the fury of the groups of North Africans.

“The images of the mega brawl that took place in Cathedral Square deeply wound Florence and the residents of Florence,” said European Parliament deputy of Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy party), Francesco Torselli, municipal councilor of Fratelli d’Italia, Alessandro Draghi, and the president of the National Youth of Florence, Simone Sollazzo. “Brutal, gratuitous, senseless violence exploded in the heart of the city in one of the most beautiful squares in the world, and, at least on paper, among the most protected. Shocking scenes that require serious reflection: How is it possible that all this has happened right here, before the eyes of everybody?”Fratelli d’Italia members write. Municipal Counselor for Security, Andrea Giorgio, speaks of the exploitation of the incident on the part of the center-right. 

“New year, the usual Torselli: The brawl incident in Cathedral Square is serious and will be investigated by law enforcement, but as usual, the Fratelli d’Italia European Parliament deputy exploits it and says things that are not true, forgetting that the right has been governing for three years, and the Italians are still awaiting answers on security,”  Giorgio asserts. “The propaganda mechanisnm from the right is always the usual: distort reality, constructing polemics and lies to cover their failure, and attack Mayor Funaro and the administration (…) “Describing the most beautiful New Year’s Eve in Florence in recent years by summarizing it with only one incident, serious-not to minimize it, but still limited like that, is to manipulate reality.” But the images speak clearly.