After last weekend's riots, Milan is preparing for another Saturday of protests (UPDATES ON PROTESTS IN ITALY). For tomorrow, in fact, new demonstrations have been announced and the city will be armored and garrisoned, including by the military, in various areas. On the public order front, there is fear of a union between the very young people who in recent days have attacked shops and opposing movements. The arrival of 500 paratroopers is expected in the Lombardy capital, but there is tension in the government over the rules of engagement. The Quirinale, meanwhile, has signed the new security decree. Fears of new unrest, however, do not only concern Milan and, after the clashes of 17 and 18 October, there were searches by the Digos in 18 cities.
The Digos searches
The State Police, in particular, announced that - upon delegation from the Judicial Authority and on its own initiative - "a series of home and personal searches were carried out on approximately 100 subjects, of which 51 were minors, identified in the serious disturbances of 17 and 18 October". The searches were "carried out by Digos agents in Arezzo, Bari, Bergamo, Bologna, Bolzano, Como, Florence, Genoa, Lodi, Naples, Pescara, Padua, Cremona, Verbania, Aosta, Monza, Varese, Verona".
New protests expected in Milan
Meanwhile, new protests are expected in Milan tomorrow, Saturday 24 October. Last weekend, groups of young people - many minors - hit the center and other areas of the city with mini-blitzes in which they broke windows and looted some shops. The methods of the protest, the experts explain, took even the veterans of street riots by surprise (i.e. the hardest wings of antagonists, social centres, anarchists and pro-Pal). Security sources have revealed that, in recent days, there have been attempts by the historic protagonists of the urban clashes to join the new protesters. The demonstrations announced for Saturday, not only in Milan, will therefore be the first test bed to verify any connections between the different components of the violent protest.
Fears of new unrest
Fears are therefore growing that new riots like those of last weekend could be repeated. The demonstration was called in the Cathedral by the "17 October Movement", an acronym born from a week that does not gather all the souls present in the square a week ago. Also for this reason, it is impossible to predict how many people will participate in the event this time. Officially there will be no anarchist procession, with the promoters having decided to cancel it so as "not to fragment the squares".
Tensions on the military in the city
The demonstrators, however, will find themselves faced with an imposing security device, with the police and the 500 Folgore paratroopers who will not have judicial police powers but will be able to carry out patrols, even dynamic ones. After the controversy over the presence of the Army, the government is discussing the military's rules of engagement. "I would have liked the departments that went to Milan to have the possibility of having the necessary tools to deal with the situation and the possibility of using them," said Defense Minister Guido Crosetto. He recalled that "they cannot use a stinging spray or a taser, they can use Velcro straps to immobilize a stopped person because after two years of requests we have recently been granted the possibility. But only around the stations. Therefore not in the streets of Milan". And again: "I 'dared' to ask that all this was possible, only in this particular circumstance" and "faced with this umpteenth availability of the armed forces, I witnessed attacks from those who see them as 'competition' and from those who called for a coup. I would like to reassure everyone because the armed forces can't wait to give back every space of public order to those who have to deal with it and they don't want any super power". No reaction came from the Interior Ministry, which manages the police force, but the words of the head of Defense suggest a climate of tension.
