Italy Deploys Security Forces as Fresh Protests Planned in Eight Cities

Protests have been called in eight Italian cities on Saturday against Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government and the rising cost of living. The demonstrations come a week after a protest in Milan descended into clashes with police and looting.

The new round was announced online by a recently formed group calling itself the October 17 Movement. Together with student federations, grassroots trade unions and antiwar coalitions, it has been a main driver of the demonstrations. "Those who deny our future are truly violent," the group said on Instagram. "We distrust this government because we see it as authoritarian."

After last weekend's looting, the government announced a series of new security measures, including the deployment of 500 soldiers to Milan, Italy's financial hub. On Friday, police carried out raids and searches in several cities targeting people suspected of looting and rioting, the news agency Adnkronos reported. Officers conducted a further 150 raids on Saturday morning in the northern region of Lombardy.

On its Telegram channel, the movement said many of those planning to take part wanted to express their dissent 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. Another member, identified as Q, said there was no distinction between violent and peaceful protesters: "It's just us."

Organisers decided to keep the location of the demonstration secret until the last minute. Three meeting points were expected to be announced on their social media accounts on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, police told Al Jazeera they had located and were questioning the administrator of the group's Instagram page. According to the daily Corriere della Sera, he is a 30-year-old Italian-Moroccan freelance journalist and researcher, and is under investigation on suspicion of "inciting crimes".

Most of those arrested last Sunday were very young. Of the 271 people detained, 220 were under 18. Corriere della Sera reported that some joined after being unexpectedly added to a Telegram group. "They said that they would raise chaos and we could take a lot of goods," one of them said.

Lawyer Michele D'Agostino is defending two demonstrators, aged 21 and 15. He told Al Jazeera the younger one "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." He added that the teenager was not among the looters but did not grasp the seriousness of what was happening.

The public prosecutor has blamed social media for misleading young people into what he described as "insurrectional acts". Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told Sky TG24 that the country needed to "expand the capacity of our youth detention facilities" in response to the mass arrests of minors.

Separately, truck drivers set up roadblocks in several regions of southern Italy earlier this week to protest soaring fuel prices, leaving many markets without supplies for days. On Thursday, the government sought to ease the pressure by granting tax breaks and creating a special fund for farmers and fishermen.