Italy Deploys Massive Security Ahead of Nationwide Cost-of-Living Protests

Security forces are being deployed en masse across Italy on Saturday for protests planned in eight cities, including Rome and Milan, following violent demonstrations last weekend.

The rallies stem from a broad wave of unrest involving students, truck drivers, and farmers opposing budget cuts and rising living costs, particularly housing and fuel prices.

Rome’s police force stated it would “saturate both physical and virtual territory,” utilizing drones and helicopters to monitor the gatherings. Authorities emphasized their aim to “safeguard the full exercise of the right to express one’s views, including dissent, but strictly in compliance with the law.”

In Milan, additional soldiers dispatched after last weekend’s clashes will patrol the city center, though Mayor Giuseppe Sala ruled out a citywide shutdown. “Last weekend there weren’t enough of us. We will simply try to be more numerous,” he told Radio Lombardia. Sala also urged shops to remain open after several boutiques in the fashion district were looted and others boarded up windows. “If panic spreads then everything stops,” he warned Friday.

A group calling itself the “October 17 Movement” has called for demonstrations at 1300 GMT across the eight cities. Organizers said three separate protests in each city would converge at a single location, with meeting points revealed only 30 minutes prior to the start.

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

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government this week adopted a security decree that eases detention rules for minors, introduces a specific crime for “violent participation in a demonstration,” and imposes fines on parents for damage caused by their children during protests.

On Friday, police conducted dozens of raids targeting individuals suspected of involvement in looting and rioting during the previous weekend’s unrest.

The government has also approved a package of measures to assist truck drivers and fishermen coping with soaring fuel prices. Nearly all the truck blockades that paralyzed southern Italy, causing days of fuel and food shortages, have now been lifted.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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