Jeff Bezos' upcoming wedding in Venice draws protesters including Greenpeace

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ROME — Greenpeace on Monday joined the smattering of protests in Venice against the upcoming wedding of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez.

A half-dozen protesters unfurled a giant banner early Monday in St. Mark’s Square reading: “IF YOU CAN RENT VENICE FOR YOUR WEDDING YOU CAN PAY MORE TAX.” Local police quickly folded it up and took it away.

The demonstration followed other anti-Bezos initiatives last week including a banner draped from the San Giorgio bell tower, one from the lagoon city’s famous Rialto Bridge and posters plastered up around town complaining about the upcoming wedding and the effects of overtourism on Venice.

The “No Space for Bezos” movement — a play on words also referring to the bride’s recent space flight — has united a dozen Venetian organizations including housing advocates, anti-cruise ship campaigners and university groups.

Activists argue the wedding exemplifies broader failures in municipal governance, particularly the prioritization of tourism over resident needs.

Greenpeace said it teamed with the British group “Everyone Hates Elon,” which has smashed Teslas to protest Elon Musk, for Monday’s banner. Greenpeace said it wanted to draw attention to the comparitively low taxes many billionaires pay while allegedly exacerbating the climate crisis with environmentally unsustainable lifestyles.

Italian and Venetian officials have strongly criticized the protests and welcomed the Bezos-Sanchez nuptials, which are scheduled for later this week.

Over the weekend, as the protests continued to make headlines in Italy, a Venetian environmental research association, Corila, said Bezos’ Earth Fund was supporting its work with an “important donation.”

Corila, which unites university scholars and Italy’s main national research council in researching Venetian protection strategies, wouldn’t say how much Bezos was donating but noted contacts began in April, well before the protests started.