The head of Rolex in Italy has accused Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of sullying the watchmaker’s reputation after Renzi suggested that protesters and suspected vandals in Milan were spoiled, Rolex-wearing brats.
In full-page ads in major Italian newspapers on Wednesday, chief executive of Rolex in Italy Gianpaolo Marini demanded an apology from Renzi and Italian Minister of the Interior Angelino Alfano after both politicians seized on a photograph published in newspapers over the weekend that purported to show a masked protester suspected of vandalism in Milan on Friday last week wearing a Rolex.
Demonstrators were protesting the Expo Milano world fair.
“I have to express my profound regret and disappointment for the association implied by your words — that there is a link between window-breakers and the fact of wearing a Rolex watch on your wrist,” Marini wrote.
‘HIGHLY IMPROBABLE’
He questioned the quality of the photograph and video, saying it was “highly improbable” that the watch could be identified as a Rolex, much less an authentic Rolex.
“Unfortunately, the echo of your words was extraordinarily vast and produced the unacceptable juxtaposition of the image of Rolex with the devastation of Milan and the universe of subversive violence,” Marini said.
The photograph of the purported “Rolex vandal” was a convenient political symbol for Renzi and Alfano, who used the image to discredit the protests that erupted on the day of expo’s highly anticipated opening on Friday.
Speaking in Bologna, Renzi thanked friends in his Democratic Party of Italy for cleaning up Milan’s streets, while “those with Rolexes were destroying the storefronts.”
‘RICH KIDS’
Alfano referred to the protesters as figli di papa (“rich kids”) in hoods who were intent on destroying Milan.
The protests were an embarrassing — but not an unexpected — spectacle on the expo’s opening day. Renzi had repeatedly hailed the opening of the fair as a great moment of pride for Italy, but his statements were overshadowed by the disruptions caused by the protests, in which a number of cars were set on fire and masked demonstrators threw stones at police in riot gear, broke windows and spray-painted storefronts.
Rolex did not apparently take offense earlier this year when the Swiss watchmaker was in the Italian news for an entirely different reason. Businessman Stefano Perotti was accused of giving the son of former Cabinet minister Maurizio Lupi a Rolex as a gift. Lupi has not been accused of wrongdoing, but was forced to resign.
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