Italy Sends 500 Troops to Milan as Eight Cities Prepare for Saturday Rallies
Rallies organized by the October 17 Movement are planned for eight cities, with police questioning a journalist linked to the group's Instagram account.
By Tunde Bailey ·
Italy is deploying 500 soldiers to Milan and conducting raids across multiple cities ahead of demonstrations planned for Saturday in eight urban centers, one week after protests in Milan ended in clashes and looting.
The October 17 Movement, a recently formed group working alongside student federations, grassroots trade unions and antiwar coalitions, announced the new round of protests online. On Instagram, the movement wrote: "Those who deny our future are truly violent," adding, "We distrust this government because we see it as authoritarian."
Police carried out searches on Friday in several cities targeting people suspected of looting and rioting, the news agency Adnkronos reported, and conducted another 150 raids on Saturday morning in the northern region of Lombardy. Police told Al Jazeera they had located and were questioning the administrator of the movement's Instagram page. Corriere della Sera identified him as a 30-year-old Italian-Moroccan freelance journalist and researcher who is under investigation on suspicion of "inciting crimes."
Most of those detained after last Sunday's unrest were minors: of 271 people held, 220 were under 18, according to Corriere della Sera. Lawyer Michele D'Agostino, who is defending a 21-year-old and a 15-year-old, said the younger client "didn't even know the reasons behind the protest; he had just seen it on TikTok and decided to check it out with a friend."
Organizers said they will keep the demonstration locations secret until the last minute, with three meeting points to be announced on social media on Saturday afternoon. On its Telegram channel, the movement said many participants intend to protest peacefully. "We must be peaceful. If we give [the police] an excuse, they will charge against us," a participant identified as E said on Thursday.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told Sky TG24 that the country needed to "expand the capacity of our youth detention facilities" following the mass arrests of minors. Separately, truck drivers set up roadblocks across southern Italy earlier this week over fuel prices, and the government granted tax breaks plus a special fund for farmers and fishermen on Thursday.
