Italy’s prime minister moved on Monday to contain a weekend of unrest. Giorgia Meloni called an emergency security meeting at Palazzo Chigi after violent clashes in Milan, declaring: “To demonstrate is a right. To lay our cities to waste is not.”
More than 5,000 people gathered in Milan over the weekend for cost-of-living protests. Police used tear gas and water cannon after stones, bins and chairs were thrown, and more than 200 people were detained — around 80 per cent of them minors, according to the Ansa news agency. Prosecutors are seeking prison sentences for five adults accused of looting, vandalism and resisting arrest.
The unrest was not confined to Milan: people were detained in Turin carrying cobblestones and hammers, and Bologna’s station was closed as a precaution. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala described the violence as a “new phenomenon” originating from an international scenario.
The clashes hand Meloni’s government a familiar dilemma — how to police angry street protests over living costs without fuelling them — and Monday’s emergency meeting signals that Rome intends to treat the weekend as a national security matter, not a local disturbance.
