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Italy to deploy 500 troops to Milan after days of protests and looting

Story by Angela Giuffrida in Rome and Jon Henley in Paris
• 20h • 4 min read



Protesters clash with police in Piazza del Duomo in Milan, Italy. The unrest followed ​clashes on Saturday in other northern cities ​including Bologna, Brescia, Bergamo ​and Turin. Photograph: Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto/Shutterstock© Photograph: Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Italy’s government is sending 500 soldiers to Milan and vowed a “firm response from the state” after protests against the cost of living descended into clashes with police, vandalism and looting. Further demonstrations are planned on Saturday.
The government of the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, also announced new security measures, including an offence of violent participation in ⁠a demonstration, tougher penalties for ⁠rioters, and financial liability for ​parents whose children take part in vandalism and looting..

In France, the interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said on Tuesday some military forces would be deployed during ⁠protests ​planned for this Saturday, “mostly to free police and gendarmes in their mission to maintain order”.
The French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, told parliament that the police presence during Saturday’s demonstrations ⁠would be “massive” and that ​his ​goal was ​for an “immediate return ​to order” *after last weekend’s violent riots.
Police in Milan, in northern Italy, detained 271 young people after hooded youths set bins ablaze, ransacked shops and smashed windows, including in the area surrounding the city’s cathedral, during the unrest on Saturday and Sunday.
Police used teargas and water cannon to disperse the violent groups, who were on the fringes of an initially peaceful protest. Of those detained, 32 have been arrested, including 23 minors and 13 foreign nationals, police said on Monday. A further 28 people were reported to judicial authorities.

Related video: French PM vows massive police deployment for new demonstrations (France24 - Video)

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France24 - Video
French PM vows massive police deployment for new demonstrations

Duration 1:58

Images of Saturday’s clashes in France, including mobs looting shops and public buildings set on fire, prompted several countries including the US, China and Germany to issue travel advice for their citizens. Nearly 2,400 people were arrested in one of France’s most violent recent bouts of unrest.
French authorities on Monday announced partial curfews in several cities, including Paris, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice, and after a night of relative calm, Lecornu said on Tuesday that new curfews would be imposed where they were needed.
Authorities in Paris renewed Monday night’s curfew, which would apply from 11pm on Tuesday until 6am on Wednesday to the Place de la République, where many of the weekend clashes took place, and in the central Les Halles shopping district.
Paris police ordered a temporary ban on people carrying cans or bottles of petrol or gas, and banned masks and helmets in some areas. A man was also arrested in connection with the burning down of the historic town hall in Limoges.

The Italian press agency Ansa reported that one of the security measures being considered in the country was aimed at second-generation immigrant youths, known as maranza – a slang term used to describe gangs of young people, usually from marginalised areas.
Many luxury stores in Milan’s fashion district have stayed closed amid fears of further unrest. Brands including Chanel, Tiffany *and Dior removed merchandise from *their windows as a precaution.
Other stores ransacked included the sports retailers Decathlon and Arc’teryx and the mobile phone operator Vodafone, footage showed.
“The government will respond firmly to these attacks on the state, ​including through measures aimed at curbing violence by minors,” the foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, who also serves as deputy prime minister, said after Meloni chaired a meeting with top security officials on Monday.

Meloni’s coalition, which is facing a general election next year, is reportedly planning tougher penalties for road blockades after days of protests in southern Italy by lorry drivers over fuel prices.
Related: Why are people protesting across Europe?
Meanwhile, Milan is bracing for further protests on Saturday after a new movement, called 17 October, emerged on social media. It said it would organise demonstrations there and in other Italian cities each Saturday afternoon “until this government of thieves collapses”.
“You are the violent ones,” the group said. “You, who denied us a future. Now, we are claiming that future ourselves.”
Opposition politicians often accuse the government of using security as a propaganda tool, arguing that Italy’s leaders do little to address core issues such as education, housing and living conditions in marginalised areas.

There were also tensions during protests at the weekend over the high cost of living in other northern Italian cities, ​including Bologna, Brescia, Bergamo ​and Turin, where 28 protesters were arrested, police said.
The protests in Italy and France have been mirrored by demonstrations in other parts of Europe.
Thousands rallied in Lisbon and other Portuguese cities on Tuesday evening, hours after police dismantled housing protest camps at dawn and arrested 55 people.
Demonstrators in Portugal are protesting soaring housing costs, seeking to align themselves with similar actions in neighbouring Spain, where tents have been set up in central Madrid for weeks.
In Lisbon, thousands of people gathered in the central Rossio square, where protesters voted by a show of hands to re-establish their tent camp from Wednesday.
“They forced me on to the streets to shout”, read one placard. Another declared: “Lisbon is not for sale”.

Anti-government demonstrations have also rocked the Albanian capital Tirana over the past week, driven by fresh demands for better university conditions, anger over corruption and a controversial resort development linked to Donald Trump’s family.
Clashes between the protesters and police escalated again on Tuesday amid renewed calls for prime minister Edi Rama’s resignation. Riot police used teargas and water cannon to disperse protesters who fired fireworks and hurled molotov cocktails and stones at officers.
Earlier on Tuesday, Rama repeated earlier accusations that “foreign actors” were to blame for the violence, having previously accused both Russia and Iran of driving online misinformation.
“It is a hybrid war that gains traction precisely because it is rooted in genuine grievances, not mere fantasy,” the prime minister said, citing the rising cost of living, housing affordability and concerns for the future.
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Italy to deploy 500 troops to Milan after days of protests and looting

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What we're watching: Troops in Milan, death penalty in Burkina Faso, US & Israel’s post-election Iran plans

Story by Will Fitzpatrick, Alex Kliment
• 3h • 2 min read



What We're Watching: Troops in Milan, Death Penalty in Burkina Faso, US & Israel’s post-election Iran plans© REUTERS

Italy sends the army into Milan

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has deployed 500 troops to Milan and tightened nationwide anti-rioting laws in an effort to quell unrest that has gripped the city since the weekend, with rioters smashing storefronts, looting businesses, and surrounding Milan’s iconic Duomo cathedral. For Meloni and her right-wing Brothers of Italy party, which swept to power in 2022 on a tough-on-crime and anti-immigration platform, the unrest — echoing larger riots in France — offers another opportunity to double down on those messages ahead of next year’s elections. And she has good reason to do so: Meloni faces growing competition from parties even further to her right, particularly from Roberto Vannacci and his National Future party, which has been gaining momentum after accusing Meloni of going soft on crime and immigration.

Burkina Faso brings back the death penalty

Burkina Faso’s parliament has unanimously voted to reinstate the death penalty, just eight years after the country’s previous, democratically elected government abolished it. A military coup ousted that government in 2022, and the ruling junta now argues that restoring capital punishment will help combat the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist insurgencies that have plagued the country for much of the past decade, killing over 25,000 people and displacing over two million. But the decision goes against a broader trend, particularly in Africa, where countries including Zimbabwe, Ghana, and the Central African Republic have abolished the death penalty in recent years. The move has also provoked fresh criticism of Burkina Faso’s military government, which human rights groups have accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings and cracking down on press freedom.

Related video: Italy deploys troops into Milan in response to recent riots (France24 - Video)

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France24 - Video
Italy deploys troops into Milan in response to recent riots
Duration 3:10

Will the US and Israel resume Iran strikes after the midterms?

President Trump and PM Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly discussed that possibility earlier this month, and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is in Israel today to coordinate Iran policy. In Israel, which sees Iran as an existential threat, neutering Tehran’s nuclear program and potentially toppling the regime are widely supported — even by Netanyahu’s opponents. Ahead of an upcoming election that he could well lose, Netanyahu is eager to resume hostilities, but Trump has so far stopped him. That’s because in the US, by contrast, the so-far inconclusive war is deeply unpopular. Trump’s Republicans are set to take a beating in the midterms, partly because the conflict has stoked inflation, a key voter concern. But with Trump keen to “finish the job,” analysts expect he’ll roll the dice again after the election. As it happens, another US carrier group, along with 10,000 troops, is now steaming back toward the Middle East. Its projected arrival date? Mid-November.
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What we're watching: Troops in Milan, death penalty in Burkina Faso, US & Israel’s post-election Iran plans