Follow-Up: Italy's Cost-of-Living Protests Enter a Second Day as Clashes Renew in Milan; More Than 60 Taken In for Checks
MILAN — Protests against the rising cost of living and deteriorating public services in Italy entered a second day on Sunday, October 18, as clashes broke out again in central Milan. Milan police clashed with protesters throwing stones and looting shops, Reuters reported; police in riot gear fired tear gas and used water cannons after several hundred hooded protesters broke shop windows and set bins on fire in the area near the central Piazza Duomo. More than 60 protesters were taken to a police station for further checks, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation cited by Reuters.
The unrest was called by the "Italia in Piazza" movement, which organized demonstrations in 13 Italian cities on Saturday, October 17, with clashes in Milan, Bologna and Turin. A total of 28 protesters were arrested on Saturday in northern cities including Milan, Bologna, Brescia, Bergamo and Turin, according to a police report issued on Sunday.
Figures for injured officers and detentions varied by source. Sky TG24, citing police figures, reported that 197 people were taken to police stations for identification on Saturday, that 43 were reported to judicial authorities, and that 141 law enforcement officers were injured in all. The Times reported that police put the number of officers injured in Milan alone at 104, with another 13 people receiving medical treatment; 72 suspects were detained at the city's central police station, 16 of them arrested. The Confcommercio business association estimated damage to Milan shops and businesses at more than 500,000 euros.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the violence in a social media post on Sunday, expressing solidarity with law enforcement officers, and announced that the government would meet on Monday, October 19, to discuss how to address the situation. On Saturday evening she had written: "Demonstrating is a right; turning our cities into a battlefield is not."
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：意大利国家警察机动部队（Reparto Mobile）的防暴警车（资料照片，摄于Bolzano一次示威期间，非本次事件现场）。照片：Aciarium，CC BY 4.0，取自维基共享资源。File photo: an armored vehicle of the Reparto Mobile, the riot unit of Italy's Polizia di Stato, during a demonstration in Bolzano; not from this incident. Photo by Aciarium, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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