Processions and tensions, clashes in Turin. Raid at the Colosseum. Meloni: 'Security guaranteed'

Fortified cities, nearly 5,000 people identified, 371 detained including 110 minors, 9 people arrested, tensions and clashes in several squares. It was another hot day for public order across Italy, even though the violence and looting of last week were not repeated. And this was thanks in part to the work of the security apparatus, which had been moving for days to intercept the surprise protests that the newly formed October 17 Movement — the promoter of the latest mobilizations that descended into disorder — was supposed to launch at the last minute. "The right to demonstrate must always be guaranteed," said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on social media in the evening, thanking Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and the law enforcement forces, "just as is the right of citizens to live in their cities in safety. This is also the direction of the measures approved in recent days by the Council of Ministers: to give the State more effective tools to prevent violence and stop criminals and troublemakers from putting entire cities to fire and sword. Because safety must be guaranteed to everyone. To those who want to demonstrate peacefully, to those who work, and to those who want to live in their cities without fear. Without leaving room for those who seek only confrontation and violence." The preventive work paid off, because just before the X hour (that is, 2:30 pm, when the locations of the gatherings in various cities were supposed to be announced on social media) came the turning point, with the Police identifying the alleged 'mastermind' behind the movement's Instagram page. Investigators' suspicions focused on Youssef Siher, an Italian thirty-year-old second-generation of Moroccan origin residing in the province of Brescia. The man, with a high-level résumé including studies in geopolitics, a PhD, and work as a freelance journalist, was taken to the police headquarters and is under investigation for incitement to commit a crime, aggravated by the purpose of terrorism and the use of computer means. A detention order could come shortly. ALL THE VIDEOS OF THE DAY The investigation to establish his identity was conducted by the Anti-Terrorism unit and the Postal Police, but for some time Siher had been a focus of Aisi's 007 agents, who had reported him for propaganda in 2024. According to intelligence, he had founded the organization 'Alba nascente' to spread the propaganda of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, to organize the logistics of pro-Pal demonstrations, and to manage relations with the antagonistic world. The postal police, after identifying him as the author of M1710, launched interception activities in concert with Anti-Terrorism and, thanks to judicial cooperation with Meta, obtained the IP address linked to the Instagram profile of the October 17 Movement. The internet service providers also cooperated in turn. At that point, the search for the thirty-year-old began: he was not at his residence in Brescia but was tracked down at the home of a pro-Pal activist, thanks to technical localization work carried out by the police in Milan, in the Corvetto district. The identification of Siher could now also provide answers to those who, in recent days, have wondered whether there was a directing hand behind the street disorders. According to the initial findings — which require further investigative developments — what seems to be emerging is that there is no organization backed by a foreign country, but there may instead be a structured movement like the Muslim Brotherhood, to which Siher appears to have been linked. The police forces "managed to isolate and contain the fringes of violent individuals, with balance and competence," commented Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi at the end of a difficult day, expressing his "praise" for the police forces also for identifying the promoter of the October 17 Movement, and reiterating that "in Italy there can be no room for those who delude themselves into acting with impunity and in lawless zones." "The strength of the State sooner or later presents the bill. The freedom to demonstrate is a precious right, but those who abuse and squander it must then take responsibility for it." Video Clashes in central Rome, the film of the demonstration No surprise action launched at the last minute, then, but tensions in several squares, with objects thrown at law enforcement, fire hydrants in action, tear gas and charges. In Rome, clashes occurred just a few dozen meters from the Quirinale after a heavy barrage of bottles was thrown at the armored vehicles. Shortly before, some demonstrators carried out a blitz by entering the Colosseum. Charges and a water cannon vehicle were also in action in Bologna, where a young man was injured and taken away by ambulance. There were two fronts of protest in the Emilian capital, with barricades, burning dumpsters, and a cigarette vending machine wrecked in the historic center. Tensions also in Turin and in a fortified Milan, with Lince vehicles and paratroopers deployed to protect Piazza del Duomo, where several thousand demonstrators, mostly university students, confronted the police forces. In Florence too, when the march headed toward the luxury shopping streets, there were bottles thrown at the police and dispersal charges. Video Turin, contact between demonstrators and law enforcement The marches in Naples, Padua and Bari, other cities where problems were feared, were calmer instead. Tensions were, all in all, contained also thanks to the preventive activity carried out in the hours before the demonstrations: several hundred young people were in fact identified during checks and there were dozens of preventive detentions, including those of some minors. Many were found in possession of balaclavas, spray cans, masks and gloves. Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA