Milan Cost-of-Living Protests Escalate Into Second Day, Over 200 Arrested

Clashes spread across Milan's city centre

Trouble began on Saturday, October 17, 2026, on the sidelines of an authorised march against the rising cost of living in central Milan. According to Euronews, mostly black-clad individuals broke away from the demonstration, threw bottles, ransacked a supermarket and vandalised scooters and bicycles around Piazza del Duomo. Police responded with tear gas and water cannons.

The unrest continued into a second day on Sunday, with further street clashes, looting and fires reported in the same area, Euronews said. Similar disorder broke out on the same weekend in the Italian cities of Bologna and Turin.

Arrests, injuries and damage

Euronews reported that more than 200 people were arrested across the two days of unrest in Milan. Italian news agency ANSA, reporting on the Milan disturbances, put the number of arrests at 32, with prosecutors seeking pre-trial custody for five adults, and said 14 police officers were injured; ANSA likewise said more than 200 people in total were detained during the disturbances. Neither outlet gave a confirmed monetary estimate for the damage to shops and street furniture in the centre.

Italy's response

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the people responsible for the violence as "thugs who exploit demonstrations to spread chaos," according to Euronews.

Meloni convened a public-order meeting at Palazzo Chigi, ANSA reported, attended among others by Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, to discuss further measures against people who use legitimate protests to incite violence. ANSA said the government is weighing measures modelled on Italy's existing Caivano decree, including stricter rules targeting minors involved in disturbances, expanded preventive detention, a new offence for group property damage carrying up to five years in prison and fines up to €15,000, and reinforced use of the army's Strade Sicure patrols.

Part of a wider European wave

The Milan unrest began the same weekend as coordinated but separate cost-of-living demonstrations in France, Belgium and Portugal, according to Al Jazeera. The outlet reported that protesters across the four countries were mobilising against rising living costs, low wages, housing affordability and underfunded public services; in Portugal, house prices have roughly doubled since 2017, Al Jazeera said, citing the scale of the housing-cost rise driving protesters there.

Al Jazeera reported that France saw the largest and most violent demonstrations, with more than 550,000 participants nationwide, roughly 1,200 arrests and 150 injured police officers; a 140-year-old town hall in Limoges was largely destroyed by fire, and city halls in Marseille and Lille were vandalised. Belgian police used tear gas and water cannons after protesters allegedly threw missiles and set fires, the outlet said.

Al Jazeera quoted law professor Alberto Alemanno as describing France as the "epicentre" of the protest movement, saying there were early signs it could spread to other countries, including Greece, Germany and Austria.

What remains unclear

The sources reviewed do not identify who organised the original Saturday march in Milan, give a confirmed total cost of the property damage, or specify how many of those detained were minors. Italian authorities have not yet published a final, reconciled nationwide tally of arrests and injuries from the weekend's unrest; the figures reported by Euronews and ANSA for Milan are broadly consistent but not identical.