Protesters clashed with police across Italy on Saturday and even briefly stormed the Colosseum in Rome; however, Giorgia Meloni's government claimed that widespread disorder was prevented by the expanded powers granted to police, which enabled preventative detention and led to the arrest of one of the chief architects of the Milan riots.
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Protesters clashed with police across Italy on Saturday and even briefly stormed the Colosseum in Rome; however, Giorgia Meloni’s government claimed that widespread disorder was prevented by the expanded powers granted to police, which enabled preventative detention and led to the arrest of one of the chief architects of the Milan riots.
The French-inspired protests in Italy continued on Saturday, yet the movements appeared to be less organised or capable of violence and destruction, with police taking a “decapitation” strategy of detaining top figures believed to be behind previous unrest.
ROME, ITALY, OCTOBER 24: Anti-riot police officers face demonstrators in front of the Colosseum during a protest against the Italian government in Rome, Italy, on October 24, 2026. (Photo by Riccardo De Luca/Anadolu via Getty Images)
According to Rome’s Il Messaggero newspaper, the ultra-left anarchist groups previously expected to stage insurrectionist riots were largely prevented from demonstrating. However, a loose-knit group of various left-wing student movements, described as “but only peripherally, to the insurrectionist movement” managed to stage a protest of around 2,500 people.
Although police largely prevented looting or significant damage to public or private property, around 500 protesters skirted law enforcement and breached the Colosseum, the 2,000-year-old amphitheatre in the heart of the Italian capital.
Police were forced to briefly use water cannons as the protest reached the Via Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, but thankfully there was not widespread violence or looting as was seen in Milan last weekend. Yet, some businesses were forced to close, and others shuttered their storefronts as the protest passed.
Meanwhile, around 10,000 protesters took to the streets in Milan. Il Giornale reported that “preventative checks decapitated the movement”, with police checking thousands ahead of the demonstration.
Notably, police in the Lombardy capital arrested the accused organiser of the so-called “October 17th Movement”, which is alleged to have been behind the Milan riots and looting last weekend as groups across Europe sought to emulate the unrest in France.
The suspect, Youssef Siher, is a 30-year-old Moroccan-heritage veteran of the pro-Palestinian movement in the city who also freelances as a journalist. He also earned a master’s degree in political science from the University of Milan.
According to Il Giornale, his thesis focused on Islamic movements in Morocco, and he previously studied the connections between 20th-century Islamic movements and the early iterations of political Islam. The paper also noted that in a 2023 social media post responding to a comment from Italian populist leader Matteo Salvini (now Deputy Prime Minsiter), Siher replied “Allah Akbar”.
His arrest comes after the Meloni government issued a decree introducing harsh penalties for organising violent demonstrations through digital platforms, with sentences of 4 to 12 years in prison. The law also allows the state to garnish the wages or welfare benefits of those responsible to pay for damage caused by riots. In the case of minors, parents will be held financially responsible.
Yet, violence still broke out at demonstrations in Florence and Bologna, where rioters set fires with garbage cans and attempted to create barricades on the streets.
“Nevertheless, many took to the streets, but the marches were uncoordinated, with law enforcement deployed to nip any attempts at disorder in the bud. In short, there was no shortage of tension and clashes. But we didn’t witness the scenes of devastation and looting last weekend,” Il Giornale noted.
BOLOGNA, ITALY – OCTOBER 24: Protesters use bicycles to build barricades during clashes with police on October 24, 2026 in Bologna, Italy. (Photo by Massimiliano Donati/Getty Images)
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said: “The right to demonstrate must always be guaranteed, as must the right of citizens to live in their cities in safety.”
She hailed the new policing powers as having prevented “criminals and troublemakers from destroying entire cities,” adding that “safety must be guaranteed for everyone. For those who want to demonstrate peacefully, for those who work, and for those who want to experience their city without fear. Without leaving room for those who only seek confrontation and violence.”
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said: “The force of the law, the force of the state, will sooner or later take its toll… Especially for young people, the message must be loud and clear: the freedom to demonstrate is a precious right guaranteed by our constitution, but those who abuse and squander it by choosing the path of illegality and violence will then take responsibility and answer to the judicial authorities.”
