Protests against cost of living expected in Italy under heavy security

Security forces are deploying massively in Italy on Saturday for protests planned in eight cities including Rome and Milan after some demonstrations turned violent last weekend.

The demonstrations come amid a wave of protests by students, truck drivers and farmers over budget cuts and cost of living issues like housing and fuel prices.

Rome's police force said in a statement it would "saturate both physical and virtual territory" and make use of drones and helicopters to monitor the demonstrations.

It said it still "aimed to safeguard the full exercise of the right to express one's views, including dissent, but strictly in compliance with the law".

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In Milan, extra soldiers sent in following last weekend's protests will patrol in the city centre but Mayor Giuseppe Sala said there was no plan to shut the city.

"Last weekend there weren't enough of us. We will simply try to be more numerous," he told Radio Lombardia.

Sala also encouraged shops not to close on Saturday, after several boutiques in the fashion hub were looted last weekend and others closed or removed window displays.

"If panic spreads then everything stops," he said Friday.

A group calling itself the "October 17 Movement" has called for protests at 1300 GMT in eight Italian cities.

It said there would be three protests in each city which would converge in one place and that the locations would only be revealed half an hour before the start.

Separately an anti-war movement called the "Anti-imperialist Axis" has also organised a rally in Rome.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government this week adopted a security decree that eases detention rules for minors, introduces a crime of "violent participation in a demonstration" and imposes fines on parents for damage done by their children during protests.

Police said on Friday they had carried out dozens of raids against people suspected of taking part in looting and rioting in the protests last weekend.

The government has also approved a series of measures to help truck drivers and fishermen cope with the spike in fuel prices.

Almost all of the truck blockades that had paralysed southern Italy, leading to fuel and food shortages for days, have now been lifted.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)