Sawt Falasteen - Hero or vigilante? Speed camera saboteur divides Italy

Cars -- and driving fast -- are a long-standing passion in Italy, home to Lamborghini, Maserati, Ducati and Ferrari, as well as the Fiat 500, not so speedy but as Italian as pasta.

But these days, as in many countries, speed cameras are as much a part of the driving experience -- and Fleximan's battle to take them down has touched a nerve.

Police on Thursday arrested a man in his 50s for allegedly destroying two speed cameras near the northern border with Switzerland in November.

But they admit he is not the "Fleximan" who has for months been operating across the north of Italy, from Veneto to Piedmont and Lombardy, vandalising dozens of radars.

Named after the popular "Flex" brand of tools, the saboteur has been caught on camera, hooded and sometimes with an accomplice, cutting down speed cameras with a circular saw.

A police spokesperson told AFP they were working "night and day" to find the culprit.

In the meantime, Fleximan has developed a cult following on social media, hailed by those who see speed cameras as a state-sponsored "racket" to raise funds.

Merchandise depicting the saboteur as a caped crusader is on sale online.

And in Padua, a mural has emerged portraying the activist as the yellow-clad assassin played by Uma Thurman in the Quentin Tarantino movie "Kill Bill", a sword in one hand, a speed camera in the other.

- Robin Hood -

But the families of road traffic victims have condemned the glorification of the saboteur, while critics point out that thousands of people die each year on Italy's roads.

Local councillors are torn between those who "refuse to let the criminals win" and those who tacitly seem to support the action.

"I was already unconvinced and I decided not to replace (them)", said Marco Schiesaro, mayor of Cadoneghe in Veneto, of the speed cameras destroyed in his area.

Italy's right-wing newspaper Libero, which is close to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government, has described the sabotage as an act of "resistance" against "bureaucrats and moralists", without explicitly condoning it.

But the best-selling Corriere della Sera, said that while "Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor, Fleximan steals lives".

In 2022, 3,159 people died on Italy's roads, or 53 deaths per one million inhabitants, according to the European Commission -- above the average of 46 across the 27-nation bloc.

Some 15 percent of road accidents are caused by driver distraction, followed by failure to respect traffic lights (13.7 percent) and speed (9.3 percent), according to national statistics agency Istat.

The debate comes after a row broke out between Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister and transport minister, and Bologna after the city's left-wing authorities imposed a speed limit of 30 kilometres (48 miles) per hour.

Salvini dismissed the new limit as an "ideological choice" to help residents better hear the birds.

Road safety association Asaps noted in response that a pedestrian struck at 30 kph has between 80 and 90 percent more chances of survival than at 50 kph.

L.AbuTayeh--SF-PST