The ceremony commemorating the 262 victims of the 1956 Bois du Cazier tragedy was marked by an incident that triggered a strong political reaction. During the speeches by the authorities, a group of people turned their backs while Senate President Ignazio La Russa read the message from the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. La Russa, a member of Brothers of Italy, commented: "Someone still keeps turning their backs." Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the gesture "serious and shameful." Members of Brothers of Italy, including Carlo Fidanza, head of delegation to the European Parliament, and Senator Roberto Menia, called on the CGIL to distance itself from the Belgian trade union and denounced a lack of respect for the institutions. CGIL Secretary Maurizio Landini denied any involvement of the Italian trade union in the gesture and accused the government of spreading "lies" and "false and biased news." The Belgian trade union Fgtb subsequently claimed responsibility for the initiative: "We turned around ourselves, because we are against the presence of fascist parties, and for us FdI is a far-right party," read a statement from the union, which specified that the protest was not directed at President Mattarella but at La Russa as he was speaking on behalf of the government. The union's regional secretary in Charleroi, Vincent Pestieau, confirmed: "Our protest did not concern Mattarella, but was solely because Ignazio La Russa spoke on behalf of the government." The commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Marcinelle tragedy, in which 262 miners of various nationalities, many of them Italian, lost their lives, thus turned into a political case. La Russa stressed that he had been attending the commemoration for forty years and stated that politicizing such a tragic anniversary harms Italy and Italians.