The Italian cabinet on Tuesday approved a decree that sends 500 soldiers to the financial capital Milan until the end of the year to protect key sites and enhance surveillance, the Defence Ministry said. The government stopped short of granting troops additional policing powers after opposition from President Sergio Mattarella.
The decree creates a new offence of “violent participation in public demonstrations”, targeting groups of more than five people who use potentially harmful objects such as stones, sticks or fireworks. The offence carries a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to 20,000 euros ($22,440).
Other measures make the parents of minors financially liable for damage caused by their children, with the state able to claim damages against family properties or deduct public subsidies. Minors aged 14 to 18 can also be placed in administrative detention even if they have not committed a crime, provided there is evidence they pose a danger, extending powers that previously applied only to adults. Individuals who use social media or online tools to organise groups for violent demonstrations face longer prison sentences of up to 12 years.
The measures follow weekend unrest in Milan, Bologna and Turin that erupted during what began as peaceful rallies over rising living costs and poor school conditions, inspired by similar mobilisations in France and Spain. In Milan, masked protesters threw stones and paving blocks at riot police, looted shops and set property on fire. Police used water cannons and tear gas. At least two police officers were injured and about 50 demonstrators, many of them minors, were detained, according to the Italian LaPresse news agency. Unrest also reported in Bologna and Turin.
Protesters say the measures fail to address the root cause: rising prices pushing families into poverty. A lack of affordable housing, rising household costs and failing public services have led many young people to say they no longer expect to be better off than their parents. Prices rose by about 2 percent a year on average, but jumped in 2022 when annual inflation hit 8.7 percent, driven mainly by energy costs after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Between 2000 and 2025, the cost of everyday necessities such as food, energy, transport and household bills has risen by 68 percent in Italy, while the average full-time wage has fallen by almost 5 percent.
Genoa Mayor Silvia Salis said young people must be listened to but the violence seen in Milan and Turin had the sole aim of destruction. “The response, however, should be inclusion,” she told La Repubblica. NGOs including Associazione Antigone, which promotes human rights within the prison system, warned that arresting young people en masse will only add to pre-existing problems, and that longer sentences will worsen overcrowding. According to government data, the prison population has already increased by more than 17 percent over four years. Antigone said that while roughly one child in seven lives in poverty, the government has not formed any policies to tackle this.
Gregorio Sorgona, a historian at the University of Palermo, told Al Jazeera the measures do not take into account growing discontent among young people, sparked by a contradiction between ostentatious wealth and a profound crisis of economic precariousness. “Before tackling the effects, one should act on the causes, starting with growing social inequality,” he said, adding that deterrence is not necessarily a valid tool to prevent the radicalisation of conflict, especially in a society swept by poverty and social segregation. He warned the decree risks intensifying protests and leading to the arrest of thousands on ill-defined legal grounds.