As stun grenades exploded and police turned a water cannon on demonstrators in Rome over the weekend, the crowd fled into side streets. Moments earlier, protesters had been chanting anti-government slogans beneath Palestinian flags and red banners bearing the hammer and sickle. The clashes followed unrest elsewhere in Italy, including looting in Milan and confrontations in Turin. Shopkeepers boarded up their windows, while the government reinforced security and deployed soldiers. The public anger has a number of causes, including fears over living costs and opposition to defense spending.
In Milan, authorities detained Youssef Siher, a 30-year-old Italian freelance journalist of Moroccan descent, accusing him of inciting violence through the online October 17 Movement. Whether those accusations establish responsibility remains to be determined. But Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party has used the case to accuse the broader left of tolerating radicals and encouraging a climate in which protest precipitates violence. The unrest has allowed Meloni to present herself as the defender of public order, while forcing her opponents to clarify where their stated solidarity with the protesters ends.
