As the Italian media published images of injured police officers, Meloni’s government rapidly enacted more measures targeting minors and further empowering the police.
People were angry because they were being repressed. The police had turned “suddenly violent” as they pushed the crowd back with their shields. The violence escalated. They started to grab people at random, hitting and kicking them. It was shocking.
A man holds up a placard at the Madrid march. ‘7,291’ refers to the number of elderly people who died in care homes in Madrid during the Covid pandemic. Photograph: Óscar del Pozo/AFP/Getty Images
It wasn’t the first time Italy’s youth have loudly aired their grievances during Giorgia Meloni’s four years as prime minister, despite the risk of falling foul of her ruling coalition’s ever-expanding crackdown on security and public dissent.
On Saturday afternoon they protested again in Milan and other major Italian cities.
Martina Miccichè was filming riot police kicking and beating a teenager with batons as they dragged him along Piazza del Duomo, the central Milan square hosting its cathedral, when she was struck by a flying object, causing a deep gash and bruising near her right eye.
The journalist had joined hundreds of mostly young people marching through the northern Italian city on Saturday afternoon to protest over soaring living costs and unaffordable housing.
France has deployed 70,000 officers around the country, while Italian police have raided homes in Milan, with protests also under way in Spain and Albania.
"Fires were lit in Piazza del Duomo on Saturday during the looting and vandalism" - Italy - 'snap - The Guardian'
France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, has said that police have made 135 arrests in relation to the nationwide protests, and seized a variety of weapons.
Weapons confiscated included metal balls, lead pellets, fireworks, slingshots, steel balls, improvised weapons, a katana and airsoft weapons, Nuñez said. He added that, so far, “there has been no major incident”.
Furthermore, the youth protests and subsequent fringe violence have exposed the sharp divide between Italy’s marginalised and immigrant youth and those with greater prospects.
Youth protesters clash with police in Piazza del Duomo on Sunday, the second day of unrest in Milan. (Photo - Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
in 'The Guardian'
Working-class Italians or third- and second-generation immigrants are regularly labelled by rightwing politicians and the press as maranza, a derogatory term used to describe groups of young people who usually congregate in city centres.
They come from areas like Barona, a sprawling council estate in the south-west of Milan. Young people there have been reflecting on the events of last weekend. “There is a lot of discontent – we are all children of this widespread malaise,” said Domenico Ricci, who along with Luca Orlando manages a bar that is part of Barrio’s, a cultural hub where the district’s youth come together.
Young demonstrators faced teargas and water cannon in Turin on Saturday
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