Milan Protests Turn Violent as Police Fire Tear Gas

Italian police fired tear gas in central Milan on Saturday after coming under attack from protesters throwing stones in the square in front of the city’s Gothic cathedral, as cost-of-living demonstrations turned violent.

The Milan protests erupted when groups broke away from a larger demonstration over the high cost of living, called by the “Italia in Piazza” movement, and clashed with police in Piazza Duomo.

Clashes around the cathedral

Police in riot gear tried to clear hooded protesters from the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the luxury shopping arcade on one side of the cathedral square. Shops pulled down their shutters and tourists fled the central area as the confrontation unfolded.

The central Duomo metro station was closed during the clashes, in which several people were reported injured and a number of arrests were made, according to Italian media reports.

Violence spreads to Bologna

Another protest turned violent in Bologna, where police used water cannon to disperse crowds. The ANSA news agency reported seven arrests after the demonstration against rising costs descended into chaos.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who faces an election next year, condemned the violence on X: “Demonstrating is a right. Turning our cities into battlegrounds is not.”

Echoes of France’s violent protests

The Milan protests came the same day that tens of thousands of people angered by rising costs and declining public services took to the streets in neighboring France, in what Italian media described as some of the country’s most violent protests in years.

The unrest in both countries underlines the mounting pressure on European governments from the cost-of-living crisis, with demonstrations growing larger and angrier as prices stay high.

Source: Reuters