Meloni deploys 500 soldiers to Milan following severe riots
Following severe weekend riots that saw widespread looting and clashes in Milan and other Italian cities, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced a decree deploying 500 additional soldiers with police powers. The emergency measures target escalating youth violence, high living costs, and public transit grievances that transformed peaceful demonstrations into destructive street battles across northern Italy.
Emergency Decree and Military Deployment in Milan
The Italian government moved quickly following a security summit in Rome involving Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Matteo Piantedosi, Guido Crosetto, and intelligence representatives, Bild reported. The 500 incoming troops will reinforce the existing “Strade Sicure” (Safe Streets) military mission. Alongside the troop increase, the cabinet scheduled a vote on a new security decree designed to expand preventive police custody for minors and streamline retroactive arrests.
Sergio Mattarella condemned the looting and destruction across Milan, Turin, Bologna, and Bergamo. “Every violence is unacceptable,” Mattarella stated, while calling for measures to curb violence by new, previously unknown actors.
Youth-Led Violence and Mass Arrests
Eighty percent of the demonstrators taken into custody during the weekend chaos were minors, with the youngest detained individual recorded at just eleven years old, DiePresse.com reported. Police deployed water cannons and tear gas after masked groups hurled stones at officers in Milan’s city center. In Milan alone, authorities brought 271 individuals to police stations, formally arresting 32 and reporting 28 others, according to Bild.
Investigators documented destructive actions of rare violence. Looters targeted sports stores like Foot Locker and local minimarkets, running off with items ranging from branded athletic apparel to frozen cakes and chocolate, Der Standard reported. Many participants filmed their actions on smartphones and posted video reels directly to social media platforms.
Parallels to French Unrest and Constitutional Debates
Italian authorities structured the crackdown to prevent the kind of widespread urban chaos seen in France over the same weekend, where French authorities reported 2,513 temporary detentions and 67 arrests following protests, Bild reported. In France, stolen goods quickly surfaced on resale websites such as Vinted and Leboncoin.
Prime Minister Meloni emphasized the distinction between lawful protest and urban destruction on social media, writing that demonstrating is a guaranteed right, but devastating cities is not. Meanwhile, the proposed emergency measures—including extended preventive detention windows and tighter restrictions on demonstrations involving minors—sparked internal government discussions regarding potential constitutional hurdles between the executive branch and the presidential office, orf.at reported.