MILAN BOOSTS SECURITY AHEAD OF FRESH PROTESTS OVER RISING LIVING COSTS

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Agency Report

Security forces are being deployed in large numbers across Italy on Saturday ahead of planned protests in eight cities, including Rome and Milan, following violent demonstrations last weekend.

The protests come amid growing unrest among students, truck drivers and farmers over budget cuts and rising living costs, particularly housing and fuel prices.

Rome’s police force said in a statement that it would “saturate both physical and virtual territory”, deploying drones and helicopters to monitor the demonstrations.

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However, the police said they remained committed to protecting citizens’ right to peaceful expression and dissent, provided protesters complied with the law.

In Milan, additional soldiers deployed after last weekend’s unrest will patrol the city centre. However, Mayor Giuseppe Sala said there were no plans to shut down the city.

“Last weekend there weren’t enough of us. We will simply try to be more numerous,” Sala told Radio Lombardia.

The mayor also urged shop owners to keep their businesses open on Saturday after several boutiques in the fashion capital were looted during the previous weekend’s protests, while others shut down or removed their window displays.

“If panic spreads then everything stops,” he said on Friday.

The demonstrations were organised by a group known as the “October 17 Movement”, which called for protests to begin at 1300 GMT in eight Italian cities.

The group said three separate demonstrations would take place in each city before converging at a designated location. However, the meeting points would only be disclosed 30 minutes before the protests began.

Separately, an anti-war group known as the “Anti-imperialist Axis” has organised a rally in Rome.

The protests come as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government adopted a security decree aimed at tightening measures against unrest. The decree eases detention rules for minors, introduces an offence of “violent participation in a demonstration” and imposes fines on parents for damage caused by their children during protests.

Police said on Friday that they had conducted dozens of raids targeting individuals suspected of participating in looting and rioting during last weekend’s demonstrations.

Meanwhile, the government has approved measures to support truck drivers and fishermen affected by rising fuel prices.

Most of the truck blockades that had paralysed parts of southern Italy, causing fuel and food shortages for several days, have now been lifted.