Violence against women should never be seen as inevitable. Society must never cease to be outraged by violence against women and must stand in solidarity with those who are its victims. These are the words of Italian senator Liliana Segre, who survived the concentration camps during the Holocaust. These words she said on March 8 this year on the occasion of International Women's Day.

On the same day, Italian police said 2022 women were victims of violence in Italy in 125, up from 119 in 2021, of which 103 women were killed by their partners or ex-partners or other family members. 95% of the victims were 18 or older. 78% of the victims were Italian.

At the head of the Italian government for more than seven months is a woman - Giorgia Meloni. At the head of the main opposition - the Democratic Party - since February is also a woman - Eli Shline. Both Meloni and Schline on March 8 called for a greater presence of women in power and gender equality. And the Italian women hoped that with such women's leadership there would be progress in combating violence against women.

Nearly three months have passed since the wishful statements on March 8, and now at the same time Italians were shocked by two murders of women.

On June 1, after several days of search in Senago in the Milan region, the body of 29-year-old seven-month-old Giulia Tramontano was found. She was reported missing after a tip from her fiancé, 30-year-old Alessandro Impagnatiello, on May 27. On June 1, her body was found after Julia's fiancé admitted that he had killed her in their home with several knife blows, then tried twice to burn her body, then hid it in the trunk of his car and finally threw it out.

Before this sinister truth came out, the man claimed that he and Julia had an argument after Julia found out about his infidelity with a colleague. After the argument, the pregnant woman left her home, according to her fiancé. One version was that she may have headed to her parents' home in the Naples area. Her fiancé ostentatiously asked her to return to him, sending her messages begging her not to allow their child to be born into a broken family.

Gradually, however, in the version of Julia's disappearance, circulated by her fiancé, cracks appeared, suggesting that investigators that he may have killed the young woman. Finally, the police reached the ominous outcome thanks to the "other woman" in Alessandro's life, whom Julia met on the day of her disappearance. During this meeting in a restaurant, the two women found that Alessandro had been cheating on them for months, and the mistress said that she was pregnant by him, but decided to terminate the pregnancy. Alessandro lied to her about breaking up with Julia and even presented her with a fake DNA test that said the child Julia was expecting wasn't from him. During the meeting between the two women, a climate of solidarity was established, strange as this may sound. Julia then went home to end her relationship, Alessandro, and then the drama took place. And the mistress, worried that Alessandro could do something to Julia, tried to contact her, but received only strange text messages from her, which led her to believe that she was not sending them and that something was wrong with her. Then she contacted Julia's sister, and the two turned to the police, and so it came to the sinister truth.

Now Julia's fiancé is charged with murder, but not unpremeditatedly, as well as with interrupting a pregnancy without the consent of the pregnant woman. Many Italians are demanding that he be prosecuted for the premeditated murder of Julia, as well as the murder of her unborn baby, which she planned to call Thiago.

The media also published a lot of revelations about the life of Alessandro, who in the past had another relationship that gave birth to a child, but which ended again because of lies and infidelities. With Julia, who worked in real estate, he had been around for several years, but their relationship had been marked by ups and downs since 2021. And already in January, the young woman began to suspect her fiancé of infidelity and even planned to have an abortion. Then she decided to give their relationship a second chance, although relatives urged her not to do so, and it led to her murder.

Julia's family is now devastated, and Alessandro's mother called her son a monster and asked forgiveness from the relatives of the murdered young woman. Alessandro himself began talking in custody for suicide to atone for his guilt. Then she said he killed Julia because she didn't want to live anymore because of the suffering he had caused her. But relatives and colleagues of the man portrayed him as a narcissistic, self-centered, baked liar, prone to systematic infidelity.

It also became clear that Alessandro worked as a bartender in the luxurious bar "Armani Bamboo" on the roof of Giorgio Armani's hotel in the area of the Teatro La Scala in Milan and that he was even caught once in theft from the cash register of the restaurant.

In memory of Giulia on June 7 in Naples in Piazza Plebiscito there will be a large demonstration. A similar event is planned on the same day in Sant'Antimo in the region of Naples, where Giulia grew up and where her relatives live. Both demonstrations will be against violence against women and in memory of all those killed by their half wives in Italy.

Julia will be buried in Sant'Antimo as soon as the body is autopsied. Mourning will also be declared in the city.

Meanwhile, in memory of the young woman, drawings and collages rained on social networks, showing her as she poses, pregnant, in one of her last photos. On social networks, a poem written by Julia's unborn son next to her also swirled. In it, the unborn child calls his father a "monster" and says to his mother: "Now we will be together. But I'm sorry, Mom Julia, that I'll never see the sea you liked so much, I won't eat chocolate, I won't sing the songs you loved."

For now, questions remain unanswered whether this tragedy could have been avoided, whether the young woman's relatives should have been more insistent and forced her to end the disastrous relationship for her. Celebrities also took part in the debate. Among them was Eros Ramazzotti's first wife, Michel Hunzíker, who said women should never agree to a last date with a man who harassed them.

The same day Giulia Tramontano's body was found, police officer Pierpaola Romano of the contingent guarding the Chamber of Deputies was shot dead by her colleague Massimiliano Carpinetti. The two had been working together since 2018, and Pierpaola, 58, was the wife of a high-ranking police officer. Her son, 22, is also a police officer. She had an affair with her 48-year-old killer. However, she recently found out that she had cancer and decided to get close to her husband again. The woman was shot at point-blank range in front of her block on the day she was going for her first cycle of chemotherapy. The killer fled in his car, but after a few blocks he stopped and shot himself. The murder and suicide were committed with Massimiliano's service gun, which he was not allowed to take out of his workplace.

A day after these two murders, only in Milan did police intervene twice to prevent violence against women. In one case, a man poured flammable liquid outside the home of a woman who ended her relationship with him two months ago and then bombarded her with threatening messages, for which he was arrested. In the second case, a man was detained while trying to strangle his wife with the handle of her bag in front of their three children.

Italians still can't forget the mid-January murder outside a restaurant in Rome of lawyer Martina Shaldone. The 35-year-old lawyer was an expert on cases of violence against women. She was shot dead by her ex-boyfriend, 61-year-old Constantino Bonaiuti, who was also a fan of firearms. A few minutes before the murder, the lawyer was having dinner with her brother at the restaurant when the rejected lover broke in and made a scene. The woman tried to hide from his anger in the toilet of the restaurant. When she got out of there, her ex-boyfriend managed to persuade her to go out for a while in front of the restaurant, where he shot her in front of many people, and then tried to escape. That murder sparked a lot of debate about whether restaurant staff could intervene and prevent the crime.

Since the beginning of the year, 46 women have been killed in Italy under various circumstances, according to the website femminicidioitalia.info. Of these, 17 cases, including the aforementioned three, have gained wide public attention and reinforced calls for more measures against violence against women in the country.