Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni convened an emergency security meeting on Monday after demonstrations over living costs deteriorated into destructive clashes with police across northern Italy over the weekend, BBC News reported.
The most intense disturbances occurred in Milan, where more than 5,000 demonstrators assembled. Police deployed water cannons and tear gas after individuals in masks hurled paving stones, chairs and garbage bins at officers. According to reports from Italian news agency Ansa, more than 200 individuals were detained in the city, with minors comprising roughly 80 percent of those taken into custody. The Associated Press previously reported at least 50 demonstrators had been detained.
Disorder Spreads Through Milan Landmarks
Clashes in Milan were heavily centered outside the historic Duomo cathedral. Agitators smashed storefront windows and ransacked shops within the nearby Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a renowned 19th-century shopping arcade, Fox News reported. Milanese Mayor Giuseppe Sala told Ansa he observed broken shop windows and looted businesses, describing the unrest as an alarming international pattern seen in major cities worldwide.
“The reasons for the protests were understandable. The violence against law enforcement and serious damage to the city are not justifiable,” Sala told the AP.
City prosecutors in Milan have sought prison terms for five adults detained on accusations of vandalism, looting and resisting police officers, according to Italian news agency AGI.
Ripples Across Northern Italy
Unrest also surfaced in other northern hubs during the weekend, which began with nationwide student demonstrations on Friday and broad union rallies organized by the Italian General Confederation of Labour on Saturday.
Meloni noted that demonstrators in Turin were apprehended carrying cobblestones along with hammers designed to break windows. According to Italy’s interior ministry, roughly 100 officers suffered injuries in Turin, where about 30 arrests occurred. In Bologna, a railway hub shut down as a precaution, and a police union cited by Reuters indicated that 56 officers were injured during protests there.
“To demonstrate is a right. To lay our cities to waste is not,” Meloni stated on Saturday, asserting on social media that fringe elements had hijacked legitimate rallies to stir unrest. She urged political rivals across Italy to denounce the attacks unequivocally, writing on X that “any hesitation becomes justification.”
Political Fallout and Next Steps
The unrest has swiftly heightened political friction in Rome. Meloni’s political allies placed blame on far-left factions, while center-left opposition leaders cautioned the government against using scattered riots to discredit economic grievances.
Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein stated that her movement consistently repudiates violence, but argued that illegal acts by a few should not overshadow the struggles of law-abiding citizens facing economic hardship, Ansa reported. Similar unrest has swept neighboring nations in recent weeks, including student demonstrations and clashes reported in France, Spain and Albania.
Monday’s high-level security gathering is expected to review police protocols and potential public order measures ahead of expected further mobilizations across the country.
