Tens of thousands of campaigners descended on the streets of Verona over the weekend to show their opposition to an anti-LGBT+ and anti-abortion conference whose self-avowed goal is to establish the “natural family order”. The US-founded World Congress of Families (WCF), which has faced criticism for its Russian ties, staged a three-day conference in the ordinarily quiet northern Italian city to discuss “the beauty of marriage” and “growth and demographic decline”. The 13th international conference of the WCF – which critics have branded “medieval” – was funded by the local authority and is backed by the far right League Party, which is a partner in Italy’s current populist coalition government.