Italy: Falun Dafa Practitioners Peacefully Protest Outside the Chinese Embassy

(Minghui.org) Practitioners held a rally in front of the Chinese Embassy in Rome on July 4, 2025 to peacefully protest the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong). They also read letters from elected officials.

Falun Dafa practitioners held a sit-in protest in the morning to commemorate their fellow practitioners who died in the CCP’s persecution in the past 26 years. They called on the CCP to end the persecution that started in July 1999.

Practitioners peacefully protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in Rome.

Practitioner Katerina Angelakopoulou, Chair of the Italian Falun Dafa Association, read a statement calling for an end to the CCP’s 26-year-long brutal persecution.

Katerina Angelakopoulou, Chair of the Italian Falun Dafa Association, speaks at the rally.

The Italian Falun Dafa Association strongly condemned the CCP’s escalating transnational suppression. In her statement, Katerina Angelakopoulou, Chair of Italian Falun Dafa Association, said the CCP extends the persecution overseas. It must stop the persecution and end the suppression. She urged the Italian government and leading elected officials to condemn the transnational suppression and request the CCP to immediately end the persecution of Falun Dafa.

Practitioners also read letters from Members of Parliament (MP), and elected officials from regions, provinces, and communes. The letters condemned the CCP’s persecution and expressed support for Falun Dafa practitioners.

Vice President of the Rome City Council Addresses the Rally

On the morning of July 4, Pietrangelo Massaro, Vice President of the Rome City Council, attended the practitioners’ rally in front of the Chinese Embassy and gave a speech. Prior to this Mr. Massaro submitted a motion to the 12th District of the Rome Municipal Government to “stop the persecution of Falun Gong and stop the live organ harvesting in China.”

Pietrangelo Massaro addresses the rally.

He spoke at the rally and said, “We’re here after the initiative we held in the council of Rome’s Municipio XII. I’m here first of all because I was aware of this latest demonstration in which the Falun Dafa movement is expressing its condemnation of certain serious behaviors that have been perpetrated against practitioners of this movement for too many years.

“And why am I here? To make an announcement: just this morning I filed in Rome’s Municipio XII the motion calling for a firm condemnation of the forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience in China. And it’s a motion that has also been approved by other local, national, and international institutions. It’s an important step because at an institutional level, such as Rome Capitale, we want to make a firm point: that there must be condemnation from all institutions and all parties, regardless of political affiliation, regardless of who governs the capital and who is instead in opposition, it must be a joint, cross-party act.

“I want to seek maximum cross-party participation in this act, maximum cross-party participation. Because it is not and cannot be reduced to a measure over which someone wages a political battle to gain a few votes, because that would be cowardly, something that would diminish the profound meaning of this act. Instead, we are working on its cross-party participation. This act, which is also very well written, was written in collaboration with the Italian Falun Dafa movement, which highlighted certain points.”

The following are the main key points of the motion “Stop Organ Harvesting, Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong:”

“Stop Organ Harvesting, Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong” motion submitted to the Rome Municipal Government

Falun Gong practices the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and has been subjected to brutal suppression, persecution, torture, and serious human rights violations by the Chinese Communist Party government since the 1990s.

It has been found that there are actual witnesses who have testified that live organ harvesting has been taking place on a mass scale.

Considering the above facts, we call for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, an end to the crime of live organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience, and take concrete actions to curb it.