Social anger in Europe: Italy responds by decree, young people are still waiting for answers

This Saturday, 24 October, France is not alone in taking to the streets. From Milan to Lisbon, from Madrid to Tirana, marches are planned one week after 17 October, a day that combined mass mobilisation and violence in several countries. Everywhere, the backdrop is the same: struggling to make ends meet, unaffordable housing and young people who say they no longer see a future. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni's government has chosen to respond first and foremost through criminal law. That choice could inspire other capitals, Paris included.

The facts: a week of anger, an eighth decree

According to Toute l'Europe, new demonstrations are planned this Saturday in Milan and other Italian cities, called by a movement named "17 October" and organised on social media. In Portugal, the "Camp de Lisbonne" collective is marching against property speculation, four days after the clearing of camps in Lisbon and Porto that ended with 55 arrests. In Madrid, a national march in defence of public pensions is due to leave Atocha at noon. In Albania, university and secondary school students have been demonstrating every day since 13 October, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Last week's toll is heavy. According to an AFP dispatch carried by Boursorama, the Albanian authorities recorded 167 arrests and 132 police officers injured in five days, and rubber bullets were used for the first time. In Milan, around 5,000 people marched on 17 October, according to Le Petit Journal, before looting and fires broke out on the fringes of the procession.

The Italian response was swift. On 20 October the Council of Ministers adopted a decree detailed by Al Jazeera: a new offence of "violent participation" in a demonstration, punishable by five years in prison and a 20,000 euro fine; the possibility of placing minors aged 14 to 18 deemed dangerous in administrative detention, even when no offence has been committed; financial liability of parents for damage caused by their children; up to twelve years in prison for organising violence via social media. Five hundred soldiers are also being deployed in Milan until the end of the year. As La Libre Belgique reports this Saturday, this is the eighth security decree since Giorgia Meloni came to power. It comes with 175 million euros for the truckers, farmers and fishermen who are blocking the south of the country.

The positions at stake

The Italian government's argument deserves a hearing. Shops were looted, police officers injured, and no state can tolerate violence taking hold in its cities. The Prime Minister's slogan, "Whoever breaks, pays", resonates with a public weary of vandalism. The mayor of Genoa, Silvia Salis, herself acknowledges, according to Al Jazeera, that the violence in Milan and Turin was aimed solely at destruction.

But the limits of this strategy are already showing. The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, refused, according to La Libre and Al Jazeera, to grant soldiers judicial police powers, such as the power to arrest demonstrators. Former Italian Prime Minister and former European Commission President Romano Prodi, quoted by La Libre, believes that an eighth decree marks the failure of the previous seven. The association Antigone, which defends prisoners' rights, fears according to Al Jazeera a worsening of prison overcrowding, at a time when the prison population has already risen by more than 17% in four years according to government data.

The analysis: order without justice does not hold

The heart of the problem is not a policing one. An Euronews analysis based on Eurostat data shows that food prices rose by 34% in the European Union between August 2021 and August 2026. The food purchasing power of the minimum wage fell by 5% in Spain and 4% in France. In Italy, again according to Al Jazeera, the cost of everyday expenses has risen by 68% since 2000, while the average full-time wage fell by nearly 5%.

In the face of such figures, a Gaullist tradition of a sense of the state should recall an obvious truth: authority cannot be decreed, it must be earned. A strong state is one that protects, not only one that punishes. Detaining teenagers who have committed no offence, making already fragile families pay, permanently stationing armoured vehicles in a European city: these are signals that risk feeding the very distrust they claim to fight. The historian Gregorio Sorgona, interviewed by Al Jazeera, fears that the decree may in fact intensify the protests.

France is directly concerned. The Interior Ministry is mobilising 70,000 police officers and gendarmes this Saturday, and Emmanuel Macron announced that gatherings not declared by trade unions would be banned "wherever we can", according to Toute l'Europe. The temptation to follow the Italian path exists. It would be a mistake if it were to stand in for policy.

Conclusion: a European response to a European anger

When the same anger is expressed at the same moment in six or seven countries, it ceases to be a national matter. The European Union has instruments, from the European Social Fund to the Youth Guarantee, and it is preparing its next financial framework. It could make affordable housing and young people's purchasing power an explicit priority, on a par with defence or competitiveness. The question is now before Europe's leaders: will they be able to answer this generation with something other than security decrees?

Article written with the help of artificial intelligence.