Major protests against Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sánchez’s impending wedding have resulted in the couple relocating the event just days before the celebration.

Bezos and Sánchez started dating in 2019 and were engaged in 2023. Their long-awaited $48 million wedding and its festivities are scheduled to last from June 26 to June 28.

Originally slated to take place in Venice, Italy, Bezos and Sánchez’s wedding has triggered an outbreak of protests from locals across the city who have made it clear that the billionaires will not receive a warm welcome from the city.

While a party was planned at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia for Saturday night, the celebration has now been moved to a new venue in the Arsenale area of the city, where Bezos and Sànchez feel the “tension-filled” protests will be easier to keep at bay.

Bezos reportedly employed a whole team of former U.S. Marines to act as security for the wedding, a precaution that has angered many citizens.

Protesters have gathered in multiple demonstrations against Bezos, holding signs and chanting demands that Bezos – along with other billionaires – pay taxes. The British activist group “Everyone Hates Elon” was reportedly heavily involved in the protests, asserting such demonstrations underscore the locals’ disgust for the “environmental and social injustice of the wedding.”

One of the activist members said, “Bezos encapsulates an economic and social model which is steering us towards collapse…All too often now social injustice travels on an equal par with the climate, on one side the arrogance of a few billionaires who have a lifestyle that devastates the planet, [on the other side are] people who suffer daily from the environment crisis.”

Bezos and Sánchez’s wedding planners Lanza & Baucina Limited gave a statement that declared, “From the outset, instructions from our client and our own guiding principles were abundantly clear: the minimizing of any disruption to the city, the respect for its residents and institutions and the overwhelming employment of locals in the crafting of the events.”

Expected to be a star-studded event, those invited have been sworn to secrecy about their attendance, and the city’s nine yacht ports have been booked for the week leading up to the event.

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Article by Baila Eve Zisman

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