Venice locals are kicking off their second week of protests against the upcoming wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, and now, they’re joined by some high-profile allies.
On Monday, activist group Greenpeace joined local protesters for a demonstration in the city’s public square, Piazza San Marco, where a small group unfurled a massive banner emblazoned with Bezos’ face, reading “IF YOU CAN RENT VENICE FOR YOUR WEDDING YOU CAN PAY MORE TAX.”
Greenpeace was joined by British activist group Everyone Hates Elon, which has previously mounted ads in London calling on Bezos to pay taxes.
The days of protests come as locals complain that Bezos and Sanchez’s pricey, star-studded nuptials, set to take place in the city later this week, will disrupt daily life and exacerbate the city’s already untenable over-tourism problem.
Beyond general concerns about over-tourism, protesters have more direct objections to the Amazon founder himself. Monday’s protesters, for example, cited reports of Amazon underpaying its warehouse and delivery staff, as well as the billionaire’s reported efforts to avoid paying income tax. Previous groups have unfurled signs accusing Bezos of making their city into a “playground for oligarchs.”
“Jeff Bezos pays his staff poverty wages and dodges tax,” wrote Greenpeace and Everyone Hates Elon in a collaborative Instagram post, alongside a video from the demonstration. “No wonder he can afford to shut down half of Venice for his wedding week.”
Just yesterday, the couple’s wedding planners released a public statement vowing to avoid doing exactly that. Prince Antonio Licata di Baucina and Count Riccardo Lanza, whose company Lanza & Baucina Limited is organizing the ceremony, told Page Six that the couple instructed them to keep the three-day, $10 million celebration as minimally disruptive as possible.
Still, protesters are skeptical, and say they’ll only continue to ramp up the action as the wedding draws closer. Across the city, demonstrators have adopted the slogan “No Space for Bezos,” a reference to Bezos and Sanchez’s space travel.
Across the city, protests have gained the support of a diverse array of organizers, from affordable housing advocates and university students to anti-cruise ship campaigners and now, international groups like Greenpeace and Everyone Hates Elon, AP reports.
However, Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro insists the demonstrations represent a small faction of a city otherwise excited to welcome the billionaire. Brugnaro said last week that Venice is “extremely proud” to have been chosen as Bezos’ wedding destination.
Aside from what their wedding planners shared with Page Six, Bezos, 61, and Sanchez, 55, have kept most of the details of their destination wedding private. However, the couple, who went public with their relationship in 2019 and became engaged in 2023, are known for having a sprawling list of A-list travel buddies.
Vogue, TMZ, and CNN have speculated that the guest list will include Sanchez’s Blue Origin crewmates Katy Perry and Gayle King, as well as Oprah, Barbra Streisand, Bill Gates, Eva Longoria, Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, and Ivanka Trump.
A spokesperson for the city confirmed to NBC News that the guest list was around 250 people, so there’s certainly plenty of room for famous faces.
A guest list that star-studded necessitates some disruption all on its own, including a security detail made up of former U.S. Marines and blocking off all nine of the city’s yacht ports, CNN reports.
Though the exact location of the wedding remains unknown, protesters believe the most likely option is the historic Misericordia building. They’ve vowed to “line the streets with our bodies,” and “block the canals with inflatables, dinghies, boats” during the ceremony, CNN reports.
“Let’s make sure that Venice is not remembered as a postcard venue where Bezos had his wedding but as the city that did not bend to oligarchs,” organizer Na Haby Stella Faye told a crowd at the Rialto Bridge protest last week. “We can’t miss a chance to disrupt a $10-million wedding.”
The post Bezos Protests Ramp Up in Venice as Greenpeace Wades In appeared first on The Daily Beast.
