Premier Giorgia Meloni's cabinet is expected to approve a major new package of security measures at a cabinet meeting on Thursday.
The executive had already been working on the package but it has stepped things up in the wake of Saturday's violent protests against the closure of an anarchist centre in Turin at which some 100 police were hurt, including one who suffered fractures after being hit with a hammer.
The crackdown is expected to include provisions for the preventive arrest of potentially dangerous demonstrators before marches and a shield to protect police officers from being put under criminal investigation when they carry out actions of self-defence while on duty.
President Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday told Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano that amendments were needed in a discussion on Constitutional issues raised by the security package, parliamentary sources said.
