Italy approves tougher protest rules and sends 500 troops to Milan after unrest

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the Council of Ministers has approved a decree introducing new public security measures after violence in Milan and other Italian cities over the weekend. She described scenes in which shops were ransacked, windows smashed and police officers attacked, and said the government would respond with additional legal and operational measures.

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Meloni said the decree adds to earlier measures, including biometric recognition and artificial intelligence tools intended to identify people hiding behind hoodies. She said the government wants to stop violence that she described as unacceptable and prevent it from becoming normalised.

One central element is a new offence: violent participation in a protest. Under the decree, a person who joins a group of five or more people during a march or protest and throws stones, firecrackers or sticks while jeopardising public safety faces up to five years' imprisonment and a fine of up to EUR 20,000.

Meloni said the penalties are tougher if a face is covered or if someone is injured. She also said the decree provides harsher punishment for acts of destruction committed as part of a group.

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The government is also changing how damage is handled. Meloni said the principle is simple: if someone breaks something, that person pays, and if the person is under 18, the parents pay.

For damage to public property, such as a bus shelter, traffic light, or police or army vehicle, she said the prefecture will send a payment order to the home address. For damage to private property, such as a shop window, store or car, she said the owner can go to court and obtain an immediately enforceable payment order.

She said an appeal will still be possible, but in the meantime the parents of the minor will have to pay, and those harmed may seek compensation from family assets and money that the state may owe them. Meloni said the decree also changes juvenile justice rules.

She said that for people aged 14 to 18, the state previously had to prove in each case that they understood what they were doing. Under the new decree, she said, there is now a presumption that they were capable of understanding their actions unless proven otherwise, and that this becomes immediately effective even though the legislation is still before Parliament.

She also said preventive detention, which until now applied only to adults, can now be applied to minors as well. In addition, she said the youth justice system will receive more judges and prosecutors, along with more places in detention centres, so that certainty of punishment also applies to 16-year-olds.

Meloni said 500 additional soldiers will arrive in Milan and work alongside police and Carabinieri officers until the end of the year. She said the city's unrest has already left almost 200 officers injured, and that according to Confcommercio the damage in Milan alone is about EUR 1 million.

She said public security forces have detained and arrested 330 people, half of them of foreign origin, meaning either born abroad or born in Italy to foreign families. Meloni said some of those on the streets were fringe agitators, but that this time there was also a new element: hundreds of very young people, many under 18, arriving in small groups after being called together by a video on social media.

Meloni said the youngest minor identified in Milan is reportedly 11 years old. She said this is painful and frightening, and warned against allowing children to believe that smashing windows is a way of earning respect or that social media approval is worth more than their future.

She said hardship cannot justify violence, even though she acknowledged that many young people face joblessness, low pay and poor prospects. The prime minister also drew a distinction between violent offenders and peaceful protesters.

She said the government is in dialogue with farmers, truck drivers, workers at the former Ilva steel plant and other communities in difficulty, and noted that Minister Salvini met representatives from the road haulage industry on the same day to address sector problems. She said acts of violence must be condemned without ambiguity, including any attempt by political figures to present looting and destruction as a legitimate way to express social grievances.

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