Cost-of-Living Unrest Spreads to Italy: 50 Detained in Milan, Clashes in Turin and Bologna, as France Counts Arrests Amid Conflicting Tallies

Since French high school students began protesting last month over teacher shortages, crumbling schools and overcrowded classrooms, the movement has grown into a broad revolt over prices, inequality and public services. On Saturday, Oct. 17, it crossed borders in force. More than 550,000 people marched in France, and demonstrations followed in Belgium, Italy and Portugal.

Milan, Turin and Bologna

Italy saw the worst of it in Milan. A march against rising living costs started peacefully, then broke down on Via Broletto and in Piazza Duomo.

Police used tear gas, water cannon and hydrants. Demonstrators threw rubbish bins, barriers, firecrackers and fireworks, and set off fire extinguishers. Riot officers charged as far as the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, and the M1 and M3 metro stations were closed.

Twenty-five people were taken to Milan hospitals, ten of them police officers, according to Euronews. None needed emergency red-code transport. Fifty people were detained, half of them minors. A portable toilet in Piazza Duomo was set on fire, shops were vandalised, and a carabinieri car was badly damaged.

Turin had about an hour of unrest involving young hooded protesters. Police stopped 12 people, 10 of them minors, and found petrol bombs, firecrackers, cobblestones and emergency window hammers. Investigators are assessing who among them is suspected of causing damage.

In Bologna, hooded youths threw stones and glass bottles near the railway station and Piazza Medaglie d'Oro after breaking away from a march that began in Piazza Minghetti. Seven people were detained.

Rome was different. About 100,000 people marched there peacefully, according to JFeed's tally.

What Italian leaders said

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said demonstrating is a right but "setting our cities ablaze is not." She accused "hooligans" of exploiting the marches "to sow chaos, attack those responsible for ensuring security and to hold entire cities hostage."

Milan's centre-left mayor, Giuseppe Sala, took a split line. "The reasons for the protests were understandable," he said, but the violence against law enforcement and the serious damage to the city "are not justifiable."

France: arrests, conflicting counts and a fight over who owns the movement

The arrest count in France depends on which source you read. Fox News, citing Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, reported around 400 arrests on Saturday, during more than 100 marches. Euronews reported that the government said around 1,200 arrests were made and 150 police officers and gendarmes were injured. The Epoch Times reported roughly 1,800 arrests nationwide and at least 60 officers injured, and JFeed also cites around 1,800 arrests and 150 police injured. These figures cannot be reconciled from the available reporting.

Masked groups tried to break into city halls in Lille and Calais and a police station in Brest, Nuñez said, and there was violence in Rennes, Toulouse, Montpellier and Grenoble. He blamed "extremely violent, radical far-left groups."

In Limoges, prefect Maurice Barate called the town hall fire "a deliberate act by hooligans." He said the roof had collapsed onto the lower floors, except the west wing, and two-thirds of the exterior had already disappeared.

In Paris, the Epoch Times reported that stones and fireworks were flying at Place de la République before the march began. It also reported a burning car, a torched newspaper kiosk, a looted Monoprix and a break-in at Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussmann.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on X that "ultra-left groups organized the violence in several cities." He warned anyone treating the unrest as a warm-up for the April 2027 presidential election that the government will not back down.

Some of the 2018 Yellow Vest movement's best-known figures reject the label that was pinned on Saturday's events. Benjamin Cauchy told Europe 1 that the far-left France Unbowed party was using the Yellow Vests "as a Trojan horse." Another veteran told France 24 she saw "a takeover from all sides by the far left, from the Communist Party to France Unbowed."

Lisbon, Belgium, Albania

In Lisbon, tens of thousands marched behind the CGTP union confederation, demanding higher wages and pensions and action on housing and fuel costs. Hundreds then stayed overnight in Rossio Square, around the statue of King Pedro IV, in a tent camp that echoes the Porto camp and the one set up in Madrid three weeks ago.

"The Portuguese social class that pays taxes, that which keeps this country going, is under attack and is losing its rights, notably its right to housing," said Elena Costa, a 46-year-old social assistant. "We are suffocating."

Antonio Margado, a 52-year-old engineer, blamed the centre-right government for "a total liberalisation of rents." Official data show Portuguese house prices rose 124% between 2015 and 2024, roughly twice the EU average.

The government is not budging. Parliamentary affairs minister Carlos Abreu Amorim said it would not give in to pressure from street demonstrations.

In Belgium, student-led protests in Brussels and Liège turned violent. Police used tear gas and water cannon, and 45 people were arrested in Liège, according to JFeed. The same roundup says student-led protests in Albania demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama's resignation reached a fifth day, with hundreds arrested and more than 120 police injured. It also reports early signs of organizing in Greece, Germany and Austria.

The grievances differ by country: housing in Portugal, tuition and education costs in Belgium, school conditions and public spending in France, and opposition to wars alongside prices in Italy.

The next concrete step is in Turin, where investigators are still deciding which of the 12 people stopped with petrol bombs and cobblestones will face charges for the damage.