Mass protests erupt across Italy as workers challenge low wages and war spending
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Thousands of students and workers joined nationwide demonstrations demanding decent pay, stronger public services, and an end to the government’s escalating military spending.
Thousands of students and workers poured into the streets in more than 40 Italian cities on Friday, demanding higher wages, robust public services, and an end to soaring military expenditures. The grassroots union Unione Sindacale di Base organized a 24-hour general strike, sparking coordinated protests across the country against an economic model that many say serves elites over ordinary people.
Most demonstrations remained peaceful, though clashes broke out in several places. In Turin, police deployed a water cannon to disperse students and left-wing activists near the prefecture building. In Rome, a large march near the Colosseum was followed by attempts to set up tents for a weekend occupation, and police used water cannon to stop a crowd moving toward parliament, detaining eight people after they tried to breach barricades.
In Milan, protesters entered the city’s ring road before concluding their march at the Politecnico di Milano, carrying flares and igniting objects. Approximately 15,000 port workers, students and other demonstrators gathered at the port of Genoa, joining similar actions across Europe to protest the use of ports for arms shipments and to draw attention to seafarers’ deaths in conflicts from the Gulf to the Black Sea.
The protests are part of a broader wave of unrest sweeping France, Spain, Belgium, Albania and other European nations, driven by anger over the cost of living, deepening inequality and related socioeconomic crises.