Activists in Venice are protesting against Jeff Bezos' plans to take over an island in the city next week for his wedding to Lauren Sanchez, which has a rumored $10 million budget. Banners reading "No Space for Bezos" were unfurled from the bell tower of the San Giorgio Maggiore basilica and from the Rialto Bridge on Thursday, the BBC reports. A protest group of the same name, which reportedly includes activists campaigning for more housing and less tourists in the city, says it plans to blocks Venice's narrow streets and canals next week to prevent guests from reaching the wedding venue—the 14th-century Misericordia di Venezia, CNN reports.
Hundreds of wedding guests, to descend on the island of San Giorgio beginning Monday ahead of the main event on June 28, have reportedly booked most luxury hotels and many water taxis. As activist Federica Toninelli puts it to the BBC, the wedding is a "symbol of the exploitation of the city by outsiders" and "we want to spark a citywide conversation and to say that people like Bezos—who represent a future we don't want and a world we don't want to live in—are not welcome here." Toninelli cites the billionaire Amazon and Blue Origin founder's relationship with President Trump as one of the reasons for the protests, intended to be entirely peaceful.
At least some Venice residents are happy to see the wedding go ahead. To protest the event would be to "hurt the city," says Setrak Tokatzian, a jeweler who leads the association of shopkeepers in St. Mark's Square. Venice's conservative mayor adds "protesting against those who bring visibility and wealth to our territory is, in my opinion, a disgrace," per CNN. "What other city would organize a committee against the wedding of such an important person?" asks Luigi Brugnaro, per the BBC. In a call-out for people to join the protests, activists claimed that for the mayor, "the only valid use of Venice is as a backdrop for events that make the rich richer." (More Jeff Bezos stories.)
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