Demonstrations against the rising cost of living turned confrontational in Milan, Turin and Bologna on Saturday, with police in riot gear facing thrown stones and firecrackers in the centre of Milan, according to ANSA. The agency reports that people were injured and others were detained in the Milan disturbances. Smaller scuffles broke out among participants in Turin, while officers used water cannon and tear gas near Bologna's central station.
The Milan trouble unfolded in the streets between Via San Prospero and Piazza Cordusio, where ANSA says groups of young people dressed in black with their faces covered targeted police for roughly ten minutes. The agency describes them not as black bloc militants but as teenagers from the city's outskirts, some of whom waved an Albanian flag in support of the unrest currently under way in Tirana. Tension then shifted to Piazza Duomo, where riot police held the centre of the square while small groups attacked them, ANSA reports. The square was evacuated, according to Corriere Milano.
Why it matters
The marches were part of a wider mobilisation over pay, fuel prices and public services that culminates in a general strike called by Italy's largest union confederation. What began as a peaceful show of discontent in several cities ended in broken glass and tear gas in at least two of them, and the disorder gives the government and unions a harder backdrop for the budget negotiations now beginning. The involvement of very young, hooded participants — rather than organised militant groups — is also likely to shape how the events are debated in the coming days.
Damage in the centre of Milan
ANSA reports broken windows, overturned construction site equipment, tables knocked to the ground and abandoned shoes in the affected areas. A heavy barrage of stones was thrown at officers in Via Broletto, prompting riot police to carry out what the agency describes as a clearing charge. Bus shelters and the glass facades of upper floors of some historic buildings were damaged, and firecrackers and pyrotechnic devices were set off. Onlookers, passers-by and tourists watched from under the arcades, their eyes reddened by tear gas, according to the agency.
La Repubblica reports that hundreds of people had joined the Milan march, which was held under the banner "Italia in piazza" and focused on fuel costs and low wages.
Turin and Bologna
In Turin, ANSA reports two episodes of disorder within the cost-of-living procession. Organisers told some very young participants to remove their hoods and march with their faces visible, and demonstrators themselves stopped a small group that tried to run past the front of the march along the arcades of Via Po. When the procession reached Piazza Vittorio Veneto, a bottle was thrown at police officers stationed there, the agency says.
In Bologna, confrontations took place in front of the railway station. ANSA reports that water cannon and tear gas were used in Piazza Medaglie d'Oro and that hooded youths threw stones and other objects in large numbers. Dozens of Mobike rental bicycles were knocked to the ground. The agency describes the air as acrid, with the protest moving from the square facing the station towards the surrounding avenues and towards the central Via Indipendenza, with water cannon and tear gas deployed.
A general strike announced in Rome
Speaking from the stage of the CGIL's "Via maestra" rally in Piazza del Popolo in Rome, general secretary Maurizio Landini announced that the union will call a general strike on 20 November, ANSA reports. He pressed the government for answers ahead of the budget law and noted that a Europe-wide student strike is scheduled for the same day. The Rome demonstration, held under the slogan "Work, peace, environment, welfare, Constitution", was backed by more than a hundred secular and Catholic associations, according to the agency.
The platform ranges across higher pay and pensions, an end to precarious contracts, action against in-work poverty and a narrower gender pay gap. On taxation, organisers call for a crackdown on evasion, a lighter burden on salaries and pensions, and higher taxes on excess profits, rents and large fortunes, arguing that those with more should contribute more. They also want public health funding raised to 7.5% of GDP and education spending to 5%, alongside new hiring, shorter waiting lists and quality public services across the country. The rally also opposes rearmament and higher military spending.
Away from the main cities, ANSA reports that truck drivers in Calabria and Sicily are continuing their protest against fuel prices. Anav Sicilia, the trade body representing passenger transport companies, warned that private transport services are at risk from Monday if diesel supplies are not resolved.
What to watch is whether the disorder spreads to other cities before 20 November, and whether the government responds to the unions' budget demands before the strike date.
