Clashes in Milan and Bologna

On Saturday, 17 October, cost-of-living protests in several Italian cities turned violent, with the sharpest clashes in Milan's Piazza del Duomo and in Bologna. In Milan, a minority of demonstrators with covered faces threw fire extinguishers, smoke flares and café tables at police, who responded with batons and water jets. Early reports said a young woman and a police officer were hurt in the head. Based on the tally given so far, at least forty protesters and two police officers were injured in Milan, and authorities had carried out about 50 detentions there at the time of reporting. The Duomo metro station closed during the clashes, shopkeepers lowered their shutters, and tourists and residents sought refuge in shops and apartment blocks around the square.

Bologna and Turin

In Bologna, a small group of young protesters with covered faces threw stones and bottles at officers, who used batons and tear gas. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, police also deployed water cannon to break up groups, and seven people were arrested. In Turin, demonstrators protested rising living costs and fuel prices, and chanted against the 'National Future' party, which is linked to former general Roberto Vannacci. Turin was the scene of the violence that Elly Schlein, secretary of the centre-left Democratic Party, condemned earlier in the day, when she expressed solidarity with police, journalists and the city after what she described as criminal attacks by violent, organised groups with covered faces.

Rome march and wider protest wave

In Rome, the union CGIL, which says it has 4.5 million members, organised a large march aimed at pressing Giorgia Meloni's government over its course. Reports said the Milan protest drew inspiration from demonstrations in France. The same day, tens of thousands of people in Belgium, France and Albania also took to the streets over rising living costs and the decline of public services, in protests described as among the most intense of recent years. Italian reports tied the day's unrest to economic pressure on households, including the cost of living and fuel prices.

Meloni and the opposition respond

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni addressed the protests in a social media post accompanied by video from the Piazza del Duomo. She said the right to demonstrate was not in question, but that setting fires and destroying cities was not a right, and she described those responsible as hooligans exploiting the marches to spread chaos and hold whole cities hostage.

“Protesting is a right, destroying our cities is not.”

Meloni directed her demand at the opposition, calling on it to take a clear position.

“The opposition must clearly condemn the violence and call for every protest to be peaceful. Silence is unacceptable.”

CGIL sets a general strike date

CGIL general secretary Maurizio Landini announced that the union will hold a general strike on 20 November. That is the same day on which a pan-European student strike has been scheduled. The announcement adds a further test for the Meloni government, since the unions want to bring together the grievances over living costs that drove Saturday's marches.