THE POINT
Schools are inflamed and student protests for 'No Meloni Day' are rising, with Turin experiencing the strongest tensions yesterday.
10:52
Thousands of students in Milan for the 'No one is a foreigner' parade
There are a few thousand students who are walking through the streets of central Milan for the "No one is a foreigner" procession which unites various demands from the student world: from opposition to the Meloni Government's measures regarding school reform to high rent, to the rejection of rearmament. The long snake started from Largo Cairoli, just passed through Piazza della Scala to arrive in the Porta Romana area, so far without any moments of tension.
10.51am
At least 2 thousand at a student demonstration in Florence, chants against Meloni
Banners reading 'Here no one is a foreigner' and 'L'Ecole est a nous' frame the student demonstration which will start in a few minutes from Piazza San Marco in Florence to protest in particular against school cuts but also against the Valditara Decree on the roof for foreign students in class. Different flags of Palestine. Over 2,000 people from at least 15 high schools were present. "While schools are falling apart, teachers live in situations of increasingly serious precariousness and the school system makes it impossible for students to experience school in a healthy and free way, institutions look the other way and instead of solving the problems that make school a performative, suffocating and oppressive environment, they choose to blame foreign students, fueling a policy of discrimination and marginalization", explains the organizers. Among the choruses also "We are all anti-fascists". Chants against Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. "If you take away our future, we will block your present", one banner also reads.
10.40am
High school students in procession in Rome: 'We are 20 thousand'
"We are 20 thousand, the people write the school", shout the promoters of the procession that brought together the students today in Rome. "We protest against Valditara and its measures", they declare as they pass in front of the Colosseum. The procession aims to reach the headquarters of the Ministry of Education in Viale Trastevere. The students chant anti-fascist chants, but also slogans against the Democratic Party and the CGIL. A banner calls for the general strike on October 30: "From ports to schools, students and workers united", we read.
10:34
Photos of politicians defaced in Turin. Students identified with their faces covered
After days of occupations of high schools, accompanied by tension and damage, the student protest in Turin moves to the streets.
Over 2,500 students took part in the procession which started from Piazza XVIII Dicembre, in the center of Turin, and headed along Via Cernaia. At the start of the demonstration, sheets were placed on the ground with the images of the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the Ministers of Defense and Education, Guido Crosetto and Giuseppe Valditara, and the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein, with their faces smeared in red. Next to the images also the writing "Leonardo", also smeared in red. At the head of the procession there are also some demonstrators with their faces covered, despite the ban provided for by the prefecture's ordinance.
About fifteen young people were identified by the police in the area around Piazza XVIII Dicembre, where hundreds of students gathered for a demonstration after the occupations of high schools in recent days. The young people had their faces covered, in violation of the prefecture's ordinance.
10:52
The procession in Cagliari: 'School cannot be touched'
Cagliari also takes to the streets, as in all of Italy, for "No Meloni Day". Around 600 students gathered this morning in Piazza Garibaldi and are marching through the center of the capital to reach the regional council building in via Roma. The slogan of the mobilization is "Money for schools, not for war". Opening the parade was an enormous flag of the Quattro Mori.
The protests, called today across the Peninsula, are part of what is happening in France and Spain and point the finger at the high cost of living, the so-called "barracks school", i.e. the cap on foreign students, and the degradation of school facilities. "The government would like us to believe that the problem of our schools is foreign students, but in the meantime there is a lack of teachers and the school buildings are dilapidated", say the organizers. A brief stop in Constitution Square, where someone set off firecrackers, but it was the students and organizers themselves who distanced themselves and tried to remove those who "want to disturb a peaceful demonstration".
The procession is accompanied by music and slogans, including "You can't die from school and work" and "If it doesn't change, it will be a tough fight". There were numerous banners, including "Fund schools, not wars" and "School cannot be touched, we will defend it with the fight". There is no shortage of colorful slogans aimed in particular at the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara.
09:49
Students in the square in Genoa
Demonstration this morning also in Piazza De Ferrari in Genoa, promoted by the Osa movement (Alternative Student Opposition). In the Ligurian capital, after the occupations of recent days in some high schools including Gobetti, Calvino and Lanfranconi, students are contesting the building conditions of the schools, the costs of teaching materials and public transport and the Government's policy regarding military spending. The procession opens with the banner 'Money for schools, not for war - Students united against the government'. In the late afternoon, at 5.30pm, a demonstration organized by Fridays for Future is planned in Largo Eros Lanfranco, in front of the Prefecture, to urge institutional interventions to combat climate change.
09:49
Student marches have started in some cities in the Veneto region
Some student marches started this morning in three cities in the Veneto region. The demonstrations are taking place in Padua - where yesterday the police headquarters had placed some prevention measures against minors who instigated violence - in Mestre (Venice) and Treviso. In the afternoon, a demonstration by the Middle School Student Network in Belluno is announced.
In Vicenza the mobilization is involving around 500 students, over a thousand according to the organisers. The procession started at around 9.00 am from the train station, creating problems for the city's traffic system which in the area went haywire, and then headed towards the historic center, along the central Corso Palladio, up to Piazza Matteotti where the demonstration is expected to end. At the moment there are no clashes or accidents recorded.
Some students from the "Canova" high school in Treviso climbed over the school fences to join the city protest procession. The network of social centers in the North-East documents this in a video, claiming that "the institute had locked the exits".
08:35
Maximum alert in Rome
There is maximum attention especially in Rome, where in addition to the mobilization of students, the commemoration for the 83rd anniversary of the roundup in the Rome ghetto and the climate strike are also planned. The safety device is ready to ensure that they take place without critical issues.
In the morning, in addition to the ceremony at the Portico d'Ottavia, the students who announced concentrations in various points on the web will take to the streets and then join together in a single procession.
In the afternoon, however, the Friday for future event is scheduled to start from Piazzale Ostiense and then return, after a route through the streets of the area, to the Piramide stop. About 500 participants are expected. From 6pm to 9pm, however, the citizens of Tor Tre Teste will take part in a safety walk in the neighbourhood.
