The October 17 Movement cancels the announced marches and changes the protest strategy. The Italian government activates preventive detentions, including of minors, while the police carry out checks in 18 cities.
Italy has been put on high alert for protests on Saturday, October 24. From Milan to Naples, shops, restaurants and shopping malls have decided to remain closed, while some businesses have covered their storefronts with wooden panels for fear of a repeat of last weekend's violence.
The Italian newspaper La Repubblica, in a report by journalist Alessandra Ziniti, writes that the October 17 Movement has decided to cancel the announced marches, announcing a new strategy to avoid being surrounded by police.
"The squares announced for Saturday are canceled. At 2:30 PM, in each city, we will announce three gathering points, which will be made public only half an hour in advance. At 3:30 PM, we will announce the final square," the movement's statement said.
In response to this strategy, the Italian Interior Ministry has activated a broad security plan. The ministry's crisis center will monitor the movements of protesters, while law enforcement has been instructed to use all the instruments provided for by the new security decree, including the preventive detention of people considered a threat to public order, even when they are minors.
The decree, approved on Tuesday and now in force, will be implemented for the first time during this weekend's protests. The presence of prosecutors and judges has also been reinforced in the most at-risk cities to review possible bans.
"Violence has nothing to do with democracy. We have prepared a decree-law that will be fully functional during these demonstrations," declared the Undersecretary of the Prime Minister's Office, Alfredo Mantovano.
Meanwhile, Italian police have carried out a simultaneous operation in 18 cities, searching the homes of around 100 young people, half of them minors, identified after last weekend's riots.
During the searches, knives, metal batons, metal striking gloves, a mechanical crossbow, petrol cans, masks and airsoft guns were seized. Clothes looted from Milan stores were also found in some apartments, as well as phones and electronic equipment suspected of being used to organize the protests.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi stated that investigations have begun to reveal the way the groups involved in the riots were organized.
"We are starting to lift the veil on this phenomenon. Of course, there is coordination between the protagonists of these actions," he said.
According to La Repubblica, 15 mobile police units, totaling 5,800 officers, have been placed on standby to reinforce local security structures. In Milan alone, 500 paratroopers from the "Strade Sicure" operation have also been deployed.
The measures include the use of drones, checks at railway and metro stations, and monitoring of social networks by cybersecurity specialists.
The cities where the greatest tensions are expected are Milan, Rome, Turin and Bologna, but reinforced measures have also been taken in Naples, Florence, Genoa, Bari, Padua, Verona and Como.
Authorities have another concern: the possibility that groups of football ultras will take to the streets against protesters, claiming to protect cities from violence.
Thus, Italy enters another day of protests with an unusual confrontation: demonstrators who do not reveal their locations in advance and a security apparatus that is preparing to stop them before they reach the squares.
Source: La Repubblica, Alessandra Ziniti, October 24, 2026.
