Meloni’s Security Operation Passes Its First Test in Milan

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government had less than a week to prepare for the next round of demonstrations after shops were looted and police attacked in central Milan. It used that time to send in military reinforcements and put new security legislation into force.

Five hundred additional paratroopers from the Folgore brigade took up duty in Milan on Saturday, October 24, under Operation Strade Sicure, the domestic security mission. The deployment is authorized through December 31. Soldiers were assigned to guard sensitive sites and reinforce security posts, freeing more police and Carabinieri officers to patrol the streets and manage demonstrations, the Defense Ministry said.

Preparations extended well beyond Milan. More than 1,500 officers were deployed in Rome, according to RAI. Before the marches, police carried out more than 150 searches in Milan, Monza and about 20 other cities, mainly in Lombardy. ANSA reported that the searches followed the discovery of a suspicious chat on the phone of a young person suspected of involvement in the previous weekend’s disorder.

What the new security law changes

The government moved on the law at the same time. Decree-Law No. 190 was approved by the cabinet on October 20, published two days later and took effect on October 23, the day before the demonstrations. Its powers are already available to the authorities, although Parliament must still convert the decree into law.

It creates a specific offense of organized violence at demonstrations. People acting in an organized group of at least five who unlawfully use or throw dangerous objects, creating a concrete danger to people and damaging property, face two to five years in prison and fines of €10,000 to €20,000. Those who organize or incite that violence, including through online messages, can face four to 12 years.

Police also have broader powers to intervene before anticipated violence. Temporary holding, including for minors, remains limited to 12 hours and requires specific factual grounds for expecting dangerous conduct. The decree expands the use of delayed arrests for certain offenses and allows police chiefs, under defined conditions, to bar individuals from gathering with specified people in designated places.

The provisions on minors address an issue that had become prominent after the earlier riots. For 14- to 17-year-olds, the decree presumes the capacity to understand and control their actions unless evidence shows otherwise. Prosecutors must still prove the offense. Parents can face administrative fines for specified offenses committed by their children, unless they establish that they could not have prevented them.

Parents can also be ordered to pay for the damage. When imposing those fines, the prefect, the central government’s local representative, can require parents to compensate the state, regions or local authorities for damage to their property. The prefect assesses the amount from the case records; parents have 40 days from notification to challenge the order in court.

Shopkeepers and other private victims have a separate route to recover their losses. They can seek a court order for payment, supported by the prefect’s penalty order, the underlying records and an expert assessment of the damage. The resulting order is provisionally enforceable, allowing recovery to begin before a final judgment.

Other measures speed up the temporary assignment of judges, helping courts review detentions within the required deadlines. Criminal-defense lawyers have questioned the breadth of the package and its compatibility with constitutional rules on precise criminal laws and individual responsibility.

A different Saturday in Milan

The first test came almost immediately. Thousands of people marched in Milan on Saturday, protesting over living costs, war and government policies. There were moments of tension, but the city avoided the widespread looting that had prompted the emergency response a week earlier.

Some shopkeepers had boarded up their windows. By late afternoon, many were reopening, according to Italian reports cited by The Associated Press. The local newspaper Il Giorno described most shops as open and reported that Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who had followed events from the local police command room, had little to report by the end of the afternoon.

On the immediate task of allowing demonstrations to go ahead while preventing another wave of mass looting in Milan, the government had largely delivered. Ms. Meloni, who took office in 2022, credited the security forces and said the operation had protected both the right to demonstrate and residents’ ability to live safely in their cities.

Bologna suffered hours of clashes and the looting of a Nike store in Via Rizzoli. A bus, a cash machine, shop windows and street furniture were also damaged. Confrontations occurred in Turin, Rome and Florence. The improvement was clearest in Milan, where the fear of another weekend of destruction had been acute.

The scale of the police work was substantial. An initial national tally recorded 4,292 people identified and 371 taken to police offices, including 110 minors. Nine had been formally arrested, while 87 were reported to judicial authorities for suspected offenses. Those figures were preliminary; being taken in for checks did not necessarily mean being arrested.

How police found Youssef Siher

Alongside the preparations on the streets, Milan prosecutors were investigating an online campaign calling for further mobilization. Police identified Youssef Siher, a 30-year-old researcher and freelance journalist suspected of running the Instagram and Telegram channels of the Movimento 17 ottobre, or October 17 Movement.

Mr. Siher, described in Italian coverage as the movement’s “mastermind,” was taken to police headquarters on Saturday and later detained on prosecutors’ orders at San Vittore prison. Investigators had not established direct links between him or his wife and the people responsible for the October 17–18 looting, ANSA reported Sunday evening. The movement’s accounts appeared after those riots.

The Polizia Postale, Italy’s cybercrime police, worked with antiterrorism investigators to identify who controlled the Instagram account. Judicial cooperation with Meta produced an IP address associated with it, while internet service providers helped the inquiry and investigators drew on intercepted communications, according to ANSA and Sky TG24.

Police then had to locate him. He was not at his registered address near Brescia, and his own telephone was switched off. By tracing his wife’s phone, they found him at an acquaintance’s apartment in Milan’s Corvetto district, ANSA reported.

The movement had promised to announce gathering points at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. Investigators reached Mr. Siher before that announcement. Prosecutors say the intervention stopped the final instructions from being sent and prevented a planned uprising. They allege that his messages encouraged crimes against public order and urban guerrilla tactics intended to intimidate the population.

The allegations include incitement to commit crimes aggravated by terrorist intent and organized violence at public demonstrations under the new Article 420-bis. His wife is also under investigation and has not been detained. As of early Monday, prosecutor Francesca Crupi was expected to seek judicial validation of his detention that day. The allegations remain to be tested in court.

By the end of Saturday, Ms. Meloni could point to an operation that had been assembled in days and had largely achieved its purpose in Milan.