Govt to approve deployment of 500 troops with police powers in Milan

(ANSA) - ROME, 20 OTT - The deployment of 500 troops with police powers in Milan will be among the measures Premier Giorgia Meloni's cabinet will approve on Tuesday in response to last weekend's rioting in by youths in the city, Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said The trouble began on Saturday on the sidelines of a demonstration over the cost-of-living crisis and continued on Sunday, with groups of youths swarming around shops and supermarkets, smashing windows and going on ransacking-and-looting rampages before quickly dispersing. They also clashed with police, hurling stones, bottles and flares at them, injuring 14. Over 270 people were detained and 80% of them were minors. Speaking on the sidelines of an event in Rome on Tuesday after Meloni chaired a meeting of ministers and top security officials on Monday, Tajani said the cabinet will also approve new measures that "will make it more difficult even for minors to commit crimes". "The government's response will be very firm to ensure free commerce and the free movement of citizens in city centres," Tajani said. "Peaceful demonstrations are legitimate because we live in a democracy, but those who devastated downtown Milan are criminals, often without political motives. "We'll have to see if there was any orchestration behind it". (ANSA).
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