Lockdown Protests Snowball as Europe's Libertarians Fret About Freedom

On the streets of Rome, frustrations with pandemic curbs boiled over this week as desperate protesters, many of them restaurant owners and small-business owners, complained that restrictions and repeated lockdowns aimed at suppressing the transmission of the coronavirus are ruining them. 

"We can no longer go on like this," 51-year-old pizzeria owner Ermes Ferrari told reporters. "I just want to work." Outside the parliament in the Italian capital, protesters Tuesday called for an immediate end to Italy's grinding lockdown. At one point they clashed with riot police. The protesters chanted repeatedly, "Libertà, Libertà."   Many of the protesters, who emphasized they are not COVID-19 deniers, are members of the burgeoning "I'm Opening" movement of bar and restaurant owners, who defy curbs, break rules and incur hefty fines for doing so.