“If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax,” read a giant banner unfurled by activists in a city’s central square.
Jeff Bezos was reportedly forced to move his wedding to girlfriend Lauren Sánchez to a more secure location in Venice after locals threatened to fill the city’s canals with inflatable crocodiles to stop guests from arriving.
Protest groups also vowed to disrupt the main celebration of the three-day wedding, planned for Saturday, as the Amazon founder appears to have taken over the mantle of the summer’s most-hated billionaire from Elon Musk.
“Jeff Bezos pays his staff poverty wages and dodges tax. No wonder he can afford to shut down half of Venice for his wedding this week,” said the UK-based activist group Everyone Hates Elon in a post on Instagram.
Together with Greenpeace Italy, the group was behind the massive banner that was unfolded – and quickly removed by police – in Piazza San Marco.
“As governments talk about hard choices and struggle to fund public services, Jeff Bezos can afford to shut down half a city for days on end just to get married,” anti-inequality activists from Everyone Hates Elon further said in a statement.
“Just weeks ago he spent millions on an 11 minute space trip. If there was ever a sign billionaires like Bezos should pay wealth taxes, it’s this,” it said, referring to a controversial Blue Origin flight whose celeb crew was slammed as tone-deaf.
Just days before Bezos’s wedding, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy also told the company’s corporate employees that many would be replaced in the next few years thanks to the “efficiency” of artificial intelligence.
“While Venice is sinking under the weight of the climate crisis, billionaires are partying like there is no tomorrow on their mega yachts. This isn’t just about one person – it’s about changing the rules so no billionaire can dodge responsibility, anywhere,” said Greenpeace campaigner Clara Thompson.
“The real issue is a broken system that lets billionaires skip out on their fair share of taxes while everyone else is left to foot the bill. That’s why we need fair, inclusive tax rules, and they must be written at the UN,” Thompson said.
Playground for the rich
Venice locals also complain that overtourism is driving them out, with the population of the city’s historic center falling from around 100,000 in the 1980s to fewer than 50,000 today. For many, Bezos’s wedding is a symbol of how their home has become a playground for the rich, while they see little benefit from the influx of tourist money.
Local activists plastered the city with banners and stickers proclaiming “No Space for Bezos,” with one of the movement’s leaders, Tommaso Cacciari, telling Reuters: “Bezos arrogantly believes he can take over the city and turn it into his own private party venue.”
However, Mayor Luigi Brugnaro and the city’s hospitality industry argue that the billionaire’s wedding will boost the local economy and that the protesters do not represent all Venetians.
The celebrations are expected to cost 20-30 million euros ($23-$34 million) and Bezos will also make sizable charity donations, including a million euros for Corila, an academic institution that studies Venice’s lagoon ecosystem, according to Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper.
The wedding is expected to host around 200 guests, with more than 90 private jets shuttling in celebrities and tycoons from around the world, including Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Bill Gates.
Actor George Clooney married human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in Venice 11 years ago – to a much warmer welcome.
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