October 4463Pro-Istalia march takes political classes by surpriseIn a development which took the media and the political classes very largely by surprise, 20,000 Aldurians descended yesterday upon central Semailles, where they marched past the National Assembly, the Presidential Palace and the Prime Minister's Department, before rallying outside the Istalian embassy in order to show their support for what the organisers called "the courage of the Istalian government and the Istalian people in standing up for human rights".
The march appears to have organised itself relatively spontaneously over social media. The sheer numbers of people who turned up took everybody by surprise, including the organisers, and also the police - who had to bring in reinforcements to steward the march, although the day's events passed off very peacefully and there were no arrests.
Giselle Chardin, a human rights activist who spoke at the rally, commented:
I think what this shows is that human rights are universal, and there is not a country in Terra where there are not people who care about them and are willing to stand up and be counted when it comes to defending them. In recent years, time and time again, we've seen Istalia in effect being the Conscience of Terra, taking a stand and doing what's right, even when others around the world are indifferent or even hostile. We've seen this particularly over Noumonde, and now again over Saridan. But if I had to pinpoint what has pushed people over the edge and really galvanised them, it's the
horrible anti-Istalia agenda being pursued within the Consortium Alliance. You could not find a single person here today who does not want to say a big "Fuck You!" to certain of the political leaders involved in that. That is why so many people have come out today, to show the Istalians that they're not alone, and that the world is behind them.
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It is not all good news for Istalia, however. Following the pro-Istalia march, several right-wing newspapers have run editorials criticising and mocking Istalia's general approach to foreign policy.