Students in Italy’s northern cities and truck drivers in the south have spent the past two weeks protesting against the rising cost of fuel, food and rent, months before national elections in which Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will seek a second term.<\/p>\n
The unrest began on October 16, when students marched in Rome, Milan, Turin, Bologna and other cities under the banner “No Meloni Day”, calling for more money for education and repairs to school buildings. Most marches were peaceful, but in the days that followed police in Milan and Bologna used tear gas and water cannon, shop windows were smashed and dozens of people were arrested. About 10,000 people marched in Milan on Saturday, October 24, largely without incident.<\/p>\n
In the south, truck drivers and farmers blocked motorway exits in Calabria, Puglia, Sicily and Campania over the price of diesel, which rose 32 percent between February and October according to government data. In Naples, some fuel pumps and supermarket shelves ran empty as deliveries stalled. The blockades began to ease last week after the government lined up aid.<\/p>\n
The economic figures behind the anger are stark. Inflation reached 4.2 percent year on year in September, according to the national statistics institute Istat, driven mainly by fuel. The Parliamentary Budget Office estimates that real wages in Italy fell 6.6 percent between 1990 and 2026.<\/p>\n
The government has announced tax credits worth about $195 million for farmers, fishers and truckers hit by fuel costs, and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini has promised further support for haulage firms.<\/p>\n
On security, the cabinet approved a decree on October 20 creating the offence of “violent participation in a demonstration”, punishable by up to five years in prison and fines of up to 20,000 euros, and requiring protesters to pay for damage they cause. Parliament has 60 days to turn it into law. The government also deployed 500 soldiers to Milan ahead of last weekend’s marches as a precaution.<\/p>\n
Opposition leaders Elly Schlein of the Democratic Party and Giuseppe Conte of the Five Star Movement have both travelled south to meet protesting truckers and farmers.<\/p>\n
Economists say the frustration has been building for years. Gianfranco Viesti, an economist at the University of Bari, told The New York Times that many Italians feel stuck, “having no hope of social mobility.” Christian Ferrari of the CGIL trade union told AFP that “the cost of living is unbearable.”<\/p>\n
Meloni’s government became the longest serving in Italy’s history in September. The next general election is due in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Students in Italy’s northern cities and truck drivers in the south have spent the past two weeks protesting against the rising cost of fuel, food and rent, months before national elections in which Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will seek a second term. The unrest began on October 16, when students marched in Rome, Milan, Turin, Bologna and other cities under the banner “No Meloni Day”, calling for more money for education and repairs to school buildings. Most marches were peaceful, but in the days that followed police in Milan and Bologna used tear gas and water cannon, shop windows were<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[235],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n