Riots erupted in Turin, Italy, over the weekend, leaving more than 100 law enforcement officers injured after clashes with violent agitators who were seen beating police with hammers and rocks.
The violence reportedly broke out during a demonstration opposing the eviction of the Askatasuna social center, an occupied building that authorities are moving to close. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced Sunday that the government will convene a public safety meeting Monday to assess the situation and determine next steps. In a statement posted on X alongside video footage of officers being attacked, Meloni condemned the violence.
“What happened today in Turin, during the demonstration by the antagonists against the eviction of the Askatasuna building, is serious and unacceptable,” Meloni wrote. “A legitimate eviction of an illegally occupied property was used as a pretext to unleash violence, arson, the throwing of firecrackers and organized assaults, up to the point of striking a police armored vehicle.”
“The images of the assaulted officer speak for themselves: we are not dealing with protesters, but with individuals acting as enemies of the State. The ones who paid the price were the law enforcement officers, forced to face a real urban guerrilla warfare, and some journalists, attacked while doing their job,” she continued. “To them goes my full solidarity, together with that extended to the citizens who were damaged, who paid the price of blind and deliberate violence. This is not dissent nor protest: these are violent assaults with the objective of striking the State and those who represent it.”
The prime minister also called on the judiciary to fully enforce the law, warning against leniency that has previously undermined efforts to hold violent offenders accountable.
“Defending legality is not a provocation: it is a duty,” she said. “The State does not retreat in the face of the violence of fake revolutionaries accustomed to impunity and stands, without ambiguity, on the side of those who wear a uniform, those who provide information and those who respect the rules of civil coexistence.”
The unrest in Turin came amid a broader wave of demonstrations across Italy over the weekend. In Milan, left-wing protesters gathered in Piazza XXV Aprile to protest reports that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would be involved in security for the US delegation during the upcoming Winter Olympics. Demonstrators in Milan employed tactics similar to those used by Antifa-style activists in the United States, including blowing whistles.
