Italy deploys 500 extra soldiers to Milan under security decree after weekend of rioting

Italy has sent 500 additional soldiers to Milan under a government decree approved on Tuesday 20 October, after rioting in the city’s central shopping district on 17 and 18 October in which stores were looted and property set on fire, AP reported. Many of the rioters were minors.

The decree, approved by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet and signed by President Sergio Mattarella on 22 October, raises the army contingent of the Strade Sicure (“Safe Streets”) operation in Milan by 500 until 31 December 2026, according to the draft text published by the agency DIRE. It authorises spending of €4,753,131.

The Defence Ministry said the soldiers would reinforce security posts, step up guarding of sensitive sites and increase patrols, freeing state police and Carabinieri officers to focus on preventing and responding to crime and on public order. The soldiers, all paratroopers from the Folgore brigade, do not have judicial police powers but can carry out patrols, Sky TG24 reported. With the 800 soldiers already in Milan under Strade Sicure, the total in the city rises to about 1,300.

In a video message, Meloni said the 500 soldiers would “work alongside the police and Carabinieri officers until the end of the year”. The same decree creates an offence of violent participation in a protest, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to €20,000, makes parents pay for damage caused by children under 18, and allows preventive detention for minors. Meloni said almost 200 officers had been injured in the recent unrest.

Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said the ministry was ready to act immediately, but also said he would have liked the units sent to Milan to have “the necessary tools” to deal with the situation and repeated his view that soldiers should gradually be replaced by Carabinieri, ANSA and Sky TG24 reported. ANSA described tension within the governing coalition over the soldiers’ role.

Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala said: “Right now we need the soldiers,” adding that the number of officers deployed the previous weekend “was not sufficient”, la Repubblica reported. He also said the city was not militarised.

On Saturday 24 October the paratroopers were posted in sensitive areas, including stations and Castello Sforzesco, and army Lince armoured vehicles stood in Piazza del Duomo, Affaritaliani reported. More than 10,000 people, mostly students and pro-Palestinian activists, marched through the city. RaiNews reported one brief moment of tension, when police used batons as a march was stopped near Via Borghetto, but no repeat of the previous weekend’s looting.