Renato Bellofiore, the mayor of Italy’s Gioia Tauro, protested Thursday against choosing the town’s port to reload Syria’s chemical weapons.

Renato Bellofiore, the mayor of Italy’s Gioia Tauro, protested Thursday against choosing the town’s port to reload Syria’s chemical weapons.

"If something happens, the people will destroy us,” Itar-Tass news agency quoted the mayor as saying.

Bellofiore accused the Italian Foreign Ministry of not knowing “what democracy is.”

The operation to reload the chemical weapons from a Danish ship to a US one has yet to be officially announced by the Italian parliament’s commissions on foreign affairs and defense.