THE POINT
'Money for schools, not for war', 'Fewer weapons, more rights'. These are some of the slogans of the students who took to the streets in various Italian cities after the occupations of the institutes in recent days. There are several thousand young people marching in Turin with chants against the government, the Prime Minister Meloni, the Minister of Education Valditara and the leader of Futuro Nazionale Vannacci. Events also in Rome, Genoa, Venice, Padua, Treviso, Cagliari.
1.13pm
In Turin throwing stones at officers
The student procession in Turin arrived in Piazza Castello, where a few hundred demonstrators broke away from the rest of the students, covered their faces and threw stones and warning torches towards the police, shouting: "This is the Prefecture, the one that didn't want us to arrive here in the square". The police are responding by deploying water cannons and using some tear gas, while the chant "Tout le monde déteste la police" rises from the square. The throwing of large stones and glass bottles continues, while the police forces have made the demonstrators move back, approaching with a few moments of contact and continuing with water cannons.
1.02pm
Students in Milan occupy the former morgue at the end of the procession
At the end of the student march in Milan, the participants occupied the former morgue in the central via Francesco Sforza, behind the state university. "There are 5 thousand of us," they said. The procession ended without any particular tension. The former morgue is a currently empty building owned by the Municipality of Milan and given in concession to the State University which will use it as an educational centre.
12.40pm
In Bologna, tension in front of the station with the police
Moments of tension at the station in Bologna during the protests and student marches, also organized in the city on the day of the strike. After meeting in the university area, the high school students took off in a procession with banners and flags. With them also the collectives. Some high schools and institutes in the city were closed, even with chains, to prevent student access. Today's mobilization was announced on the occasion of the occupation of the Laura Bassi high school, which took place this week: the protest in that case was in solidarity with the French students "against the war and against the high cost of living".
The procession, in which a thousand students took part, marched through the avenues, blocking traffic in some points and then arrived at the station where it was stopped by the police in anti-riot gear. The students lit smoke bombs and threw bottles, then there was a moment of contact when they were pushed back by police officers with shields. The procession then set off in the direction of Via Irnerio.
12.20pm
The silhouettes of Meloni and Valditara upside down in Genoa
Shouting "Marshal Tito taught us, killing the fascist is not a crime" a group of students participating in the national school strike promoted by the Alternative Student Opposition (OSA) movement in Genoa placed two silhouettes of the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara upside down near the rubbish bins and threw eggs at them. The episode, in memory of what happened to Benito Mussolini on 29 April 1945 in Milan in Piazzale Loreto, occurred in Via dei Santi Giacomo Filippo near the headquarters of the Prefecture of Genoa, the Metropolitan City of Genoa and the Regional School Office. A cardboard tank was burned in front of the Confindustria Genoa headquarters.
12.17pm
The Osa Collective: '400 thousand students in the streets throughout Italy'
"There are 400 thousand of us throughout Italy. On October 30th we will join the general strike and on November 20th the European student strike against the war": this is what the students of the Osa collective, among the organizers of today's street initiatives, say.
1.20pm
A cordon of teachers who took to the streets stands between students and police in Turin
Some Turin teachers intervened between the students in the procession and the deployment of the police forces in Corso England, in Turin, where the demonstration stopped in front of the police vehicles blocking the road. The teachers, who took to the streets in solidarity with the students, lined up at the head of the procession, arm in arm behind the "Turin Assembly" banner. Some demonstrators are talking to the police to allow the march to continue and at the moment there are no further tensions, but the chants against the police continue. During the demonstration, eggs, chestnuts and some sticks were thrown towards the agents and towards the headquarters of the metropolitan city and the Intesa San Paolo skyscraper. Union flags were also present, including those of the USB.
11:59
Student network, 'Generation champions' is born for permanent mobilization
"With 'Generazione Fuoriclasse' we want to build a permanent mobilization, capable of going beyond the single day of strike and of giving continuity to the demands coming from schools. The high cost of studying, the cost of living, the lack of protection and the conditions in which we are too often forced to study are not individual problems: they are political and collective issues, which require structural responses. Decisions about school cannot be made without listening to those who go through it every day. We want to be protagonists of change, not spectators of implemented reforms from above": says Angela Verdecchia, national coordinator of the Student Network.
11.44am
Red 'blood of Gaza' paint on the walls of the building of the Metropolitan City of Venice
Some balloons with red paint, "symbol of the blood of Gaza", were thrown against an external wall of the headquarters of the Metropolitan City of Venice, in Mestre (Venice), by some participants in the student protest march. About 400 people took part in the demonstration - 200 according to the Police Headquarters - who marched along some streets of the center chanting slogans against the Government's policies on schools.
11.42am
Hooded students throw paper bombs at the march of students in Rome
At the student march underway in Rome, along the route, at Via Marmorata, some hooded men threw paper bombs and firecrackers and rolled bins into the middle of the road to block it.
Once they reached the Ministry of Education in Viale Trastevere, the protesters then threw firecrackers at the building. They shout "we are not leaving here" and "Valditara, get out of the building". Policemen and carabinieri are lined up in riot gear at the entrance to the ministry. Meanwhile the students chant "we want more classrooms, not more bombs".
11:39
In Turin students on monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, slogan against Vannacci
Dozens of students climbed the monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, in the center of Turin, during the student procession that is crossing the city. The demonstrators, who increased during the journey, unfurled banners and lit smoke bombs, chanting Bella ciao and chanting slogans against Roberto Vannacci. Among those shouted also: "The partisan grandmother taught us, killing a fascist is not a crime". In Piazza Solferino eight other young people were identified by the police because their faces were covered. After stopping in front of the monument, the procession set off again.
"Girls and boys, I want to speak to you directly. In these days many of you are protesting asking for attention and listening. It is your right and your reasons deserve to be listened to. But there are also people who enter schools with their faces covered, smash computers, destroy classrooms, devastate everything. These are hooligans and they do damage above all to you". Thus, in a video on social media, the mayor of Turin, Stefano Lo Russo, addresses the students who are demonstrating. "Because then - he explains - there are also those who take advantage of those images to talk only about the clashes, leaving the problems you are raising completely in the background.
11.16am
High school students burn the US and Israeli flags in a procession in Rome
A US and Israeli flag were burned during a student march in Rome. During the demonstration, chants calling for a "boycott" of the Jewish state were also chanted. In the procession, which from Via Cavour aims to reach the headquarters of the Ministry of Education in Viale Trastevere, dozens of Palestinian flags were noticed.
11.13am
Throwing eggs at the police at the Turin demonstration
Throwing of eggs at the police officers lined up in riot gear in front of the headquarters of the regional school office, in Corso Vittorio Emanuele II in Turin, where the procession of over two thousand students arrived who are demonstrating against the government's policies on schools and military spending. After walking along Corso Re Umberto, the demonstrators reached the building guarded by the police. While shouting "Tout le monde déteste la police", some eggs were thrown at the officers.
"It is no longer the time for dialogue, we are angry. There is no money for our schools but for their wars. We are tired, they don't want us to question the war they make us live. We repeat, we don't pay for the war. If this week we occupied thirty schools, next week there will be a hundred. Let's burn everything", was the slogan during the demonstration. A cardboard tank was burned at the head of the student march in Turin. A symbolic gesture to say no to war and war expenses. While chants of "burn burn" came from the procession, some of the demonstrators set fire to the model with some colored smoke bombs. "We don't pay for the war", to mark the scene.
11.17am
Blitz by the students of the Normale di Pisa delays the start ceremony of the academic year
A few dozen students from the ordinary course of the Scuola Normale occupied with a peaceful blitz the steps of the academic institution that lead to the room where the inaugural ceremony of the 2026/2027 academic year was scheduled for this morning starting from 10am to protest "against the cuts and the lack of transparency of the School" towards students in relation to the admission criteria. The start of the ceremony was therefore delayed and the new start time has not yet been announced.
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 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 at
