On Thursday, enraged demonstrators opposing Jeff Bezos held up a banner with the message “the 1% ruins the world” as the wealthy elite began arriving in Venice, Italy, for the billionaire’s opulent wedding.
An activist was seen climbing a flagpole near Saint Mark’s Basilica to display the massive anti-wealthy banner, marking the start of the three-day wedding gala. Authorities removed at least one protestor, who was in a wheelchair.
This protest occurred as high-profile guests — including Oprah Winfrey and Kim and Khloe Kardashian — started arriving in the city to attend Bezos’ wedding to Lauren Sanchez.
Some 200 A-listers from Hollywood, politics and finance are expected to attend what’s been dubbed “wedding of the century.”
As the protests continued, a gleeful Bezos was pictured waving from a water taxi as he and his bride-to-be arrived at the Aman Hotel on the Grand Canal flanked by two security boats.
With an estimated price tag of roughly $46 million, the wedding has drawn a spattering of protests by groups and local residents who have fumed the event is a sign of the growing disparity between the haves and have-nots.
Dubbed the “No Space for Bezos” movement — a play on words referring to his bride-to-be’s controversial space flight — rallygoers have unfurled a slew of anti-Bezos banners on iconic Venetian sites in recent days.
Local activists have already signaled they’ll be staging a more organized protest for Saturday as they aim to obstruct access to canals to prevent guests from reaching the wedding venue.
“It will be a strong, decisive protest, but peaceful,’’ Federica Toninello, one of the activists, said. “We want it to be like a party, with music, to make clear what we want our Venice to look like.”
