Over 150 searches by the police between Milan, Monza and 20 other cities, mainly in Lombardy, as part of investigative activities after last weekend's riots. The operation was launched after the discovery of a suspicious chat on the phone of one of the young protagonists of the Milan riots. Among those searched were university and high school students, minors who most often had no criminal record. Today, dozens of new demonstrations are planned throughout Italy, but the October 17 Movement has announced that it will only communicate the final concentrations and squares at the last minute. Cities are locked down.
Il Tg1: 'The 'mastermind' of the 17 October Movement page has been found'
The mastermind of the October 17 Movement Instagram page has been identified by the police. This would be a thirty-year-old second generation Italian of Moroccan origins. This is what Tg1 reports. The young man, formally resident in the province of Brescia, is now at the police station in Milan being interrogated. Searches underway in a friend's house on the outskirts of the Lombardy capital. She would be an activist of the pro-pal movements and a free-lance journalist who collaborates with a national newspaper.
A group of young people were blocked in Trieste
A group of young and very young people, of foreign origin, were noticed yesterday evening by police patrols - engaged in control services for the ongoing mobilization against the high cost of living - while they were collecting stones and disturbing passers-by near the Scala dei Giganti in Trieste. Some of them were intercepted by the crews at San Giusto, near the Scala dei Giganti, while others managed to escape. The young people were taken to the police headquarters: objects capable of offending and some balaclavas were found in their possession. In the morning, further members of the group who had fled yesterday were identified. The Police Headquarters informs that everyone is being treated in accordance with the law. In view of possible protests that could also affect the city of Trieste today, some shops have taken measures to avoid possible incursions. In a shopping centre, for example, the number of gates open for public access has been limited.
Police searches and seizures are underway in Bari
Searches and seizures are underway in Bari by the State Police, on the occasion of the demonstration scheduled for this afternoon by the 17 October Movement or Revolt for Bari against the State. The crimes hypothesized by the DDA and the Bari Juvenile Prosecutor's Office are incitement to commit crimes aimed at devastation and looting, with the aim of terrorism, possession of weapons, ammunition and explosives, as well as misrepresentation. Last night - it is said in a note from the Bari police headquarters - a group of very young people, aged between 15 and 18, who were reaching the city center were searched and blocked by the officers. During a further search, 3 balaclavas and pyrotechnics were seized, as well as the cell phones of some of them. At the end of the activities all the minors were entrusted to their parents.
Piantedosi: 'Complicated day, ready to face any situation'
"Today is a day that promises to be a bit complicated. There are advance warnings of demonstrations that may concern various cities, mainly from Rome upwards, but we are ready to face any demonstration that may arise anywhere." The Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, said this in his speech at the 'Culture and democracy' event in Naples. "We have deployed reinforced law enforcement devices - he added - in the most sensitive cities".
In the chat messages of aggression against the police
"Bro calm down, we're all against the cops." It is a phrase from the suspicious chat discovered in the phone of a suspect in connection with last weekend's riots in Milan and reported in the search carried out this morning on some young people in the Lombardy capital. The decree speaks of a WhatsApp group with "numerous users", of "messages with instigative content, with explicit intentions of aggression and robbery against (...) the police" to steal "weapons supplied", damage "service" cars and set fire to buildings. Furthermore there are references to organizing a demonstration for today.
Salvini meets traders and paratroopers in the center of Milan
This morning Matteo Salvini carried out an inspection in the center of Milan, in the areas affected by last weekend's looting. The deputy prime minister visited the shops, meeting employees of the commercial activities and security operators. Salvini also met the commander of the local police and the army paratroopers deployed in the city to contribute to the security of Milan.
In the center of Bologna, shops screen their windows with panels
In view of the demonstrations announced for the afternoon, even in Bologna some shops in the center have placed panels to protect their windows. Some big names in Galleria Cavour have closed their windows with plywood panels which they are currently installing. A decision also taken by other businesses in via d'Azeglio and via Ugo Bassi. Some shops remain open, with different hours, but the windows have been protected.
In Turin, meeting in Piazza Castello at 3pm. Closed shops or panels
Wooden panels in front of shop windows are starting to appear in Turin's shopping streets ahead of the demonstrations planned for this afternoon. The store of a well-known multinational computer equipment store has put up a sign announcing that the activity is suspended today and inviting customers to contact the center opened in a hypermarket in Grugliasco (Turin) or to contact a toll-free number: "We will continue to provide an excellent assistance service". The meeting point of one of the events scheduled in the Turin capital has been relaunched for 3pm today in Piazza Castello. This is a demonstration against "rearmament, expensive petrol and data centres" promoted by a group attributable to the autonomous and antagonistic area already active at the time of the Pro Pal mobilisation. "We take to the streets - we read in the appeal - for the right to housing, education and health".
In Padua Prada locks up its windows, a security device in the square
Darkened windows for the Prada store in Piazza Garibaldi in Padua, where the first of two demonstrations that are attracting attention from the police is expected this morning. The morning concentration includes the participation of CISL and CGIL school and various acronyms of the movement left also close to the Pedro social center. The police commissioner Marco Odorisio deployed part of the second mobile unit in the square with the launch truck with water cannon and the Carabinieri of the Mestre battalion in tow. The parents of some schools in Arcella, a populous multi-ethnic neighbourhood, have called a procession in which a dozen primary school children also participate, organized by Paolo Roberti of the Parents Committee. The helicopter of the Police Flight Department hovers over the city.
The Russian embassy on the protests: 'Moscow is now behind every problem in Italy'
The "hand of Moscow" has become "an all-Italian passe-partout for any inconvenient question". This was stated by the Russian embassy regarding the accusations for the street violence in Milan. "Young people are dissatisfied, prices are rising, riots are breaking out in the streets, trucks aren't moving? - writes the embassy on its Telegram site - What could be easier than blaming everything on Russian hackers, Russian agents or anyone who has a Russian passport and continues for strange reasons to visit Italy?"
The center of Milan is armored and the Lince are in Piazza Duomo
Piazza Duomo in Milan is already patrolled by carabinieri and police, present with several vans, who have started asking for documents. In the centre, the soldiers who arrived in the city are also on the streets, scattered around the square, crowded with tourists, through the Gallery and along Corso Vittorio Emanuele II. Five Lince, the army's armored vehicles, are parked in front of the Royal Palace. Most of the shops are already open, but many have their windows covered with wooden panels. Some are closed or will close, like Rinascente at 3pm.
In Florence two possible protests, in the center more shops with armored windows
While waiting to know if and where the announced demonstration of the 17 October Movement will be, which in recent days, via social media, had also included Florence among the cities where it would take the protest to the streets this afternoon, this morning in via Tornabuoni, the luxury street of the capital, and in other streets of the historic centre, the windows of some shops of the big designer labels and jewelers are armored with panels. The outdoor area of a restaurant was also dismantled.
For the demonstration of the 17 October movement, as well as for another protest announced via social media for 3pm in Piazza Signoria, yesterday the committee for public order and safety met for over 4 hours. In anticipation of the events, the shops of Ponte Vecchio, jewelers, goldsmiths and luxury watchmakers, will close at 2.30 pm, according to what we learn from the Confcommercio of Florence-Arezzo.
