Soldiers Guard Milan as Thousands March Across Italian and European Cities

By nightfall on Saturday, huge crowds of mostly young people had filled the streets of Milan, chanting insults at Premier Giorgia Meloni and carrying banners reading "No to lies of the state." Soldiers stood in the city center, and the windows of luxury boutiques were boarded up. The march, one of several across Italy that day, stayed peaceful.

The heavy security was a response to the previous weekend, when looters smashed their way into stores on the streets running off Milan's central Duomo square, going after sneakers, athletic wear and sporting goods. Milan police say that violence involved about 2,000 very young protesters, many of them "naturalized, second-generation Italians," along with foreign nationals. Over two days, police arrested 45 people, 34 of them minors.

Meloni announced a package of measures that includes sending 500 more soldiers to Milan and tougher penalties for minors, who police say made up a large share of last week's violent protesters. The new troops joined hundreds already stationed there, backing about 5,000 police and other security personnel. Authorities also used drone surveillance, checks at railway stations, rapid-response units and online monitoring for calls to violence. Police detained several minors as a preventive measure, according to media reports. Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said the soldiers were only recently allowed to use plastic restraint ties, and only around train stations, and that they are not authorized to carry pepper spray or tasers.

Many shops in the fashion district, including Omega, Tiffany and Gucci, covered their front windows. By late afternoon most had reopened, Italian media reported, though the Apple store stayed shut. Some protesters dumped manure outside Italy's energy regulator and burned an oversized symbolic electricity bill, according to local television images. A group of about 30 far-right activists, described as hooligans linked to Inter Milan, appeared briefly chanting anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim slogans but were isolated by police. The march ended peacefully outside the Milan Polytechnic, more than 3 kilometers from the center. Pierfrancesco Majorino, who announced Thursday that he is running for mayor, joined the marchers and noted how calm the day was. He will enter a center-left primary in early 2027; Mayor Giuseppe Sala, in office since 2016, is not seeking another term. Officials also said they are investigating a 30-year-old freelance journalist described as the "mastermind" of the newly formed Oct. 17 movement, the main driver of the recent Italian protests.

In Rome, authorities locked down luxury shopping streets and tightened controls around the Circus Maximus and Piazza del Popolo. A small number of protesters tried to force their way into the Colosseum and were ushered out by guards. Several hundred students demonstrated peacefully to show they were not rioters. Riccardo Ponzio, national president of an Italian far-right student association, called last week's images "truly something terrible" and said most young people do not accept being represented by those who devastate cities. A separate anti-war march briefly clashed with police near Piazza della Repubblica; organizers had urged participants to keep faces uncovered and hands visible. Police used batons and tear gas, and the protesters pulled back when a water cannon was turned on, retreating about half a kilometer. Brief clashes also occurred in Turin.

Elsewhere, the picture was rougher. In Tirana, Albania, riot police used water cannons on large crowds, and some protesters set government buildings on fire and threw projectiles. Authorities put 2,500 officers on the streets. For over a week, protesters have thrown rocks, flares, firebombs and fireworks at police. Students are demanding lower tuition, more state investment in education and an end to corruption in the education system, and some have joined calls for Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign. Rama said his government is preparing a response and invited students to talk, while warning violent protesters will face penalties.

In Madrid, thousands of retirees and others marched peacefully against any tampering with public pensions, ahead of next month's snap election. "They are threatening us with privatizing pensions," said Maria José Benito, 68. In Lisbon, marchers demanded affordable housing and opposed Prime Minister Luis Montenegro's measures to ease the cap on yearly rent increases and make evicting non-paying tenants easier. Montenegro says the changes will build trust between tenants and landlords and boost rentals; protesters say they leave tenants more vulnerable.

What to watch now is whether the tougher penalties for minors and the investigation into the Oct. 17 movement dampen or fuel the Italian protests, and how Albania answers its students.