Milan, Bologna, Turin… Italy also shaken by scenes of chaos and looting

Youths and police clashed for the second day in a row on Sunday in Milan, Italy's economic capital, where vandals threw bottles and ransacked stores in the central cathedral district. The violence began the day before on the sidelines of a demonstration against the high cost of living. In total, police in the Lombardy metropolis have arrested around 70 people since Saturday, according to the Ansa news agency.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called a security meeting for Monday to deal with the ongoing violence, which is reminiscent, to a lesser degree, of certain scenes of chaos and looting that took place on Saturday in Paris.

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Use of tear gas and water cannons

These gatherings, organized in particular under the banner “Italia in Piazza”, were born from a movement against the rising cost of living, fuel prices, low wages and the deterioration of public services. The first clashes took place in Milan on Saturday, on the sidelines of an authorized demonstration. Similar scenes of chaos occurred in other northern cities, Bologna, Turin, Bergamo and Brescia.

On Sunday, police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse various groups in Cathedral Square, the historic and tourist heart of Milan. Video footage shows young people, mostly men and most of them masked, throwing objects at police cars. A supermarket on the city center shopping street Via Torino, which opens into the square, was ransacked, trash bins overturned and scooters and bicycles vandalized.

New elections in 2027

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala (center left) said he saw “broken windows, looted stores and frightened citizens.” “What happened here is what we see in many cities around the world,” he told Italian news agency Ansa on Sunday. “I am very worried because this is a new phenomenon, which also has its origins in an international context and therefore feeds on itself.”

Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right coalition government faces new elections in 2027, on Saturday called the vandals "thugs who are exploiting the protests to sow chaos, attack those who guarantee security and take entire cities hostage." “Protesting is a right. Ravaging our cities is not,” she wrote on X.