Opposition parties condemn security laws as ‘violation of the constitutional right to demonstrate’
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s leader of the Milan unit of Cub, a grassroots workers’ union, Mattia Scolari joined thousands who marched on Saturday in the northern Italian city against the Winter Olympics. “Wages never grow, young people are fleeing abroad for work and there is more and more poverty. We are fed up with an Olympics that causes mayhem in the city, only brings temporary jobs and will leave lasting ecological damage,” he said.
The rally, which brought together an array of activist groups, was predominantly peaceful, marred only by a brief clash at the end when protesters on the march’s fringe threw firecrackers, smoke bombs and bottles at the police, who in turn responded with teargas, water cannons and six arrests. On the same day, rail infrastructure in northern Italy was sabotaged in a protest action subsequently claimed by anarchists.
With Italy under the global spotlight, the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, pulled no punches in her condemnation. Sharing video footage of the clashes in Milan published on the US rightwing network Fox News, she described anti-Olympics protesters as “enemies of Italy and Italians” while expressing solidarity with the “police forces, city of Milan and all those whose work is undermined by these gangs of criminals”.
