Today, the Italian President, Sergio Mattarella, described the violence during riots in Milan as unacceptable, and expressed total solidarity with security forces agents, many of whom were injured.
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19/10/2026
by
Lusa
O Italian President Sergio Mattarella today described as unacceptable the violence that took place during riots in Milan on the weekend, and expressed total solidarity with security forces agents, many of whom were injured.
“ This service involves ensuring the safety of our municipalities and cities, where any form of violence is unacceptable. My total solidarity goes to the security forces”, said Mattarella during the opening ceremony of the 39th National Assembly of the Provinces of Italy (UPI).
Mattarella added that violence came from new types of actors and that an in-depth analysis of disturbances is needed.
“Intelligent and in-depth analysis is needed”, combined with an “attendant vigilance, capable of combating violence” from “new types of actors”, said ANSA news agency.
The prosecutors in the Lombardy region today reported that disturbances in Milan during the weekend revealed destructive acts of rare violence, which were essentially practiced by young adults.
Those arrested on Saturday because of the riots in central Milan, during which dumpsters, paving stones and other objects were thrown against security forces, demonstrated “an absolute ease in improvising destructive acts of rare violence”, as well as a “significant criminal capacity” and a total absence of “self-control,” according to the Public Ministry.
The riots in Milan resulted in the arrest and identification of about 160 people, almost all young people, many of them including minors, who acted with their faces covered.
The Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, whose coalition government between the right and the far right will have to face new elections in 2027, condemned on Saturday the agitators “who take advantage of the demonstrations to sow chaos, assault those who guarantee security and take whole cities hostage”.
Meloni gathered in Rome today a number of security ministers as well as heads of security forces and intelligence services.
The meeting, according to the same sources, served to analyze different measures proposed by police forces, aiming to reinforce the prevention of this type of occurrence.
A Council of Ministers is scheduled for Tuesday, according to sources related to the procedure cited by the Efe agency.
The government decided to act after some protests held on Sunday, motivated by rising cost of living, degenerated into violent disturbances and looting in the center of cities such as Turin, Bologna and Milan (north), the latter considered the economic capital of the country.
For the moment, it is not exactly known what measures will be adopted, but some local media are advancing that it will be a decree-law, an instrument used in urgent situations, which needs to be ratified by Parliament within 60 days.
But Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Transport and leader of the extreme right-wing League party announced today that about 500 additional soldiers will be mobilized to defend Milan after the riots.
Salvini revealed on social media that this is one of the measures that will integrate the security decree to be presented on Tuesday, classifying the achievement as a victory of the League.
The centre-left opposition criticised the Meloni government for considering security measures in response to these acts, without, however, addressing the economic causes that generate indignation among Italians, such as transporters who maintain a strike in the south of the country due to rising fuel prices.