The Italian government will send 500 soldiers to "defend Milan" following two days of unrest in the city, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said on Monday. The deployment is expected to be part of a package of security measures that the government is due to approve at a meeting on Tuesday.
Salvini, who is also the leader of the governing right-wing League party, posted on social media: "From words to deeds: 500 more soldiers to defend Milan." The unrest included clashes between protesters and police, shop looting and vandalism.
Fearing a fresh outbreak of violence, shops in central Milan closed early, with windows barricaded with boards. Most stores in the luxury shopping district of Via Montenapoleone, home to fashion houses such as Chanel, Tiffany & Co. and Dior, removed stock from their display windows as a precaution. Police patrolled the street, while a handful of tourists observed the situation.
Over the weekend, several hundred masked protesters, believed to be mostly minors, set fire to bins and looted shops in the city centre. The looting followed an initially peaceful protest on Saturday over poor public services and rising cost of living. Among the looted stores were sports retailers Decathlon and Arc'teryx, as well as mobile operator Vodafone, television footage showed. Fashion brands Levi's and Under Armour, along with Decathlon, covered their windows with cardboard and wooden planks.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the violence and chaired a meeting with ministers and security officials on the situation on Monday. Meloni faces national elections next year. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, wrote on X: "The government will respond decisively to these attacks on the state, including measures aimed at curbing violence by minors."
According to the Corriere della Sera, Meloni is considering extending preventive detention for minors and tackling youth gangs. She is also considering fast-tracking certain provisions of the existing security law, which is currently in parliamentary procedure.
Italian police said that 271 young people were detained during the unrest in Milan on Sunday. Of those brought to police stations, 32 were arrested, including 23 minors and 13 foreign nationals, the police said on Monday. A further 28 people were reported to judicial authorities.
The unrest followed clashes on Saturday in other northern cities, including Bologna, Brescia, Bergamo and Turin. In those clashes, 28 protesters were arrested, according to a police report published on Sunday. The unrest echoed similar events in neighbouring France, where hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on Saturday. The protests in France were driven by rising cost of living and a decline in the quality of public services, and were among the most violent in the country in recent years.
