Pillages, violence, destructions even in Italy: The war of the children

Robberies, violence, and destruction even in Italy: The War of the Children Over the weekend, similar to France, there were outbreaks of violence in some northern Italian cities. Now it is clear: 80 percent of the rioters in Milan are minors and have no political concerns. Italian politicians are looking for answers. Monday morning in Milan: Pictures show worried parents waiting in front of the police headquarters to pick up their children who were detained there. Some have heard nothing from their offspring since the weekend. What the media reported the day after the violence outbreak in the Lombard metropolis is alarming. Eighty percent of the well over 200 arrested rioters are minors. The media reported 11-, 12-, and 13-year-olds who were brought into police custody. "The war of the boys," headlines the newspaper "Repubblica," the war of the children. Asked by journalists, a father waiting in front of the headquarters in Milan says: "I worked every day and was ashamed: If my son made a mistake, he must pay for it." The Milan police dealt with confrontations with demonstrators on Sunday. There are no final analyses of the riots in the city center over the weekend, where shop windows were smashed, stores were looted, and tables and chairs were thrown around. The preliminary tally speaks of 141 injured law enforcement personnel and 18 demonstrators who had to be taken to hospital. Without heads and without a target Initial assessments show that the young people are mostly Italians from the suburbs of Milan and members of the second and third generation of immigrants from Eastern Europe and North Africa. In Turin, Bergamo, and Bologna, where clashes also occurred, a similar picture emerges. After everything known so far, it is a movement without a head, without organization, and without ideology – a fact that makes the work of law enforcement more difficult. Because with the usual means of repression and prevention, the police do not get far. Mobilization occurs practically without advance notice via social networks. According to media reports, investigators do not rule out that algorithms may have facilitated the spread of the riot calls. It is also secured that the spark from France has at least partially jumped to Italy and Albania. In any case, the calls circulating on the net are graphically and content-wise similar. Not surprisingly, the rioters used the announced political rallies against inflation, high rents, and the cost of living as a springboard and pretext for their acts of violence. For all these reasons, Italian politicians find it difficult to find a quick answer. The first reactions were expected to bring about a clash between the right-wing government in Rome and the mostly center-left major cities. The Milan mayor belonging to the Greens, Beppe Sala, accused the government of not providing enough law enforcement and not recognizing the danger in time – an accusation that Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi did not want to bear. Sala's reaction was the "usual and instinctive reflex of the Salon Left," who failed to condemn the perpetrators of violence without reservation and always preferred to shift the blame to the state. Meloni's Dilemma The government cannot stretch too far, of course. The riots show that even the numerous security decrees adopted by the right coalition in Rome do not offer a way to deal with spontaneous outbreaks of violence like those in Milan or Bologna. Furthermore, Meloni's executive cannot simply ignore the concerns of the population expressed by those demonstrators who protested peacefully over the weekend. Although there may have been more left-wing activist circles in the cities of Northern Italy waving flags and signs against Meloni, it is in the South of the country that workers and employees are loudly protesting against inflation and high fuel prices. In Apulia, Sicily, and Calabria, truck and tractor drivers have been blocking the roads for days. Their protests, which are less headline-grabbing at the moment, continued on Monday. The strongest Italian trade union has announced a nationwide general strike for November 20th. The accumulation of protests is likely to cause Giorgia Meloni considerable trouble. The election year is approaching, and once again, the mobilization on the streets and squares of Italy contributed to a painful defeat for her government. A wave of protest against the major judicial reform preceded this in March, which was supported by a significant number of young people, although for different reasons. How Giorgia Meloni will proceed after the recent demonstrations will soon be revealed. For the time being, she has content with demanding a clear distancing from the rioters from the left opposition. She wrote on "X" that one should "not be ambiguous" on this issue. "Any restraint will become justification." I have great respect for the thousands of people who today have protested peacefully, also participating in the mobilization ordered by the CGIL, which also saw the participation of the leaders of the left. Whatever the ideas for which they protest, participation is... — Giorgia Meloni (@GiorgiaMeloni) October 17, 2026 For Monday, a first crisis meeting was scheduled in Palazzo Chigi, where sharper measures against rioters were discussed. The focus is on upstanding young people and minors. The Mayor's Letter The opposition, for its part, has every interest in distancing itself from the rioters. If future demonstrations are also accompanied by violent gangs, the wind could quickly turn and Meloni could regain stature as a "Law-and-Order" politician. The mayors of nine large, center-left-ruled cities (Rome, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Naples, Bari, Genoa, and Cagliari) have meanwhile condemned the outbreaks of violence in a letter to Meloni and warned of the danger that the social and intergenerational cohesion in the country is gradually breaking down. The tensions in the cities are not just a problem of public order. It is more about addressing their causes such as housing shortages, low wages, and inadequate infrastructure politically. The mayors demand an immediate meeting from Meloni.