{"id":332265,"date":"2026-10-21T07:35:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T07:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=332265"},"modified":"2026-10-21T08:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T08:23:09","slug":"italy-to-deploy-500-troops-to-milan-after-days-of-protests-and-looting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=332265","title":{"rendered":"Italy to deploy 500 troops to Milan after days of protests and looting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Angela Giuffrida and Jon Henley \u2013 The Guardian Oct 20, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"

Police detain a protester in Milan<\/p><\/div>\n

Italy\u2019s government is sending 500 soldiers to Milan and vowed a \u201cfirm response from the state\u201d after protests against the cost of living descended into clashes with police, vandalism and looting. Further demonstrations are planned on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The government of the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni<\/a>, is also planning to swiftly approve tougher new security measures, including extending preventive detention for minors, cracking down on youth gangs and banning gatherings for people deemed a threat to public order, Italian media reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In France<\/a>, the interior minister, Laurent Nu\u00f1ez, said on Tuesday some military forces would be deployed during \u2060protests \u200bplanned for this Saturday, \u201cmostly to free police and gendarmes in their mission to maintain order\u201d.<\/p>\n

The French prime minister, S\u00e9bastien Lecornu, told parliament that the police presence during Satuday\u2019s demonstrations \u2060would be \u201cmassive\u201d and that \u200bhis \u200bgoal was \u200bfor an \u201cimmediate return \u200bto order\u201d \u200cafter last weekend\u2019s violent riots.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s cathedral, during the unrest on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Images of Saturday\u2019s 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\u2019s most violent recent bouts of unrest.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Authorities in Paris renewed Monday night\u2019s curfew, which would apply from 11pm on Tuesday until 6am on Wednesday to the Place de la R\u00e9publique, where many of the weekend clashes took place, and in the central Les Halles shopping district.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> \u2013 a slang term used to describe gangs of young people, usually from marginalised areas.<\/p>\n

Many luxury stores in Milan\u2019s fashion district have stayed closed amid fears of further unrest. Brands including Chanel, Tiffany \u200cand Dior removed merchandise from \u200ctheir windows as a precaution.<\/p>\n

Other stores ransacked included the sports retailers Decathlon and Arc\u2019teryx and the mobile phone operator Vodafone, footage showed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government will respond firmly to these attacks on the state, \u200bincluding through measures aimed at curbing violence by minors,\u201d the foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, who also serves as deputy prime minister, said after Meloni chaired a meeting with top security officials on Monday.<\/p>\n

Meloni\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cuntil this government of thieves collapses\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are the violent ones,\u201d the group said. \u201cYou, who denied us a future. Now, we are claiming that future ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposition politicians often accuse the government of using security as a propaganda tool, arguing that Italy\u2019s leaders do little to address core issues such as education, housing and living conditions in marginalised areas.<\/p>\n

There were also tensions during protests at the weekend over the high cost of living in other northern Italian cities, \u200bincluding Bologna, Brescia, Bergamo \u200band Turin, where 28 protesters were arrested, police said.<\/p>\n

Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As France also warns that military force could be deployed to contain further unrest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feature-posts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=332265"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332269,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332265\/revisions\/332269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=332265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=332265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=332265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}