By Euronews
Published on
Saturday marks the last day of celebrations for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez wedding which left Venice divided, estimated at a cost of over €42 million.
Following Friday’s reception on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, where Bezos and his wife tied the knot during a private ceremony with around 200 celebrity guests including Leonardo DiCaprio, the Kardashian sisters, Tom Brady, Orlando Bloom, Ivanka Trump and Bill Gates.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people demonstrated on Saturday through the streets and canals of Venice against the union being celebrated in Venice.
The protest organised by the ‘No space for Bezos’ committee started from Venice’s railway station and reached campo Erbaria, at the foot of the Rialto Bridge. Protesters from across north-eastern Italy gathered with inflatables and placards to voice their opposition to the wedding of the Amazon founder and the American journalist.
On Saturday, it was also VIP-hunting in Venice, as several guests took the opportunity to visit the city’s most iconic landmarks.
Demonstrations against Bezos’s wedding
The protests had already begun in the days leading up to the wedding, as the couple and their guests arrived in the Venetian Lagoon. On Friday night, the eve of the ceremony the message “No kings, no Bezos / f**k oligarchs” was projected onto the bell tower in St Mark’s Square.
On Wednesday, activists paraded a float along the Grand Canal with a dummy of Bezos clinging to an Amazon box, his fists full of fake dollars. On Monday, the activists joined Greenpeace and the British group ‘Everyone Hates Elon’, which destroyed Teslas in protest against Elon Musk, and unfurled a large banner in St Mark’s Square against tax breaks for billionaires . The banner read: ‘If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more taxes’.
Why are there protests against Bezos in Venice?
Interviewed by Euronews, Marta Sottoriva, organiser of the No Space for Bezos campaign, said that the protest was not against the wedding itself, but against what it symbolises for Venice. “We are not protesting against weddings, but against the vision of Venice as a city where you only come to consume,” Sottoriva said.
According to the activist, Bezos is a symbol of ‘a wealth built on the exploitation of the many’, citing Amazon’s opposition to unionisation and recalling the billionaire’s presence at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.
Initially the newly married couple had planned to celebrate the wedding at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, but the event was moved due to protests. The three-day event ended with a grand masquerade ball at the historic Arsenale, with performances given by Lady Gaga and Elton John .