Image Credit: @GiorgiaMeloni / X screenshot 
Turin, Italy saw scenes of extreme violence on Saturday during a demonstration agains the eviction of the illegally occupied Askatasuna anarchist ’social centre’ last December. The centre was shut down and the property seized at the end of last year by DIGOS, the General Investigations and Special Operations Division (DIGOS) of the Italian Police, after the centre’s activists took part in an attack against the headquarters of Italian newspaper La Stampa.
The Saturday protest quickly escalated and for about an hour, between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., it turned into what the authorities describe as urban guerrilla warfare. Reportedly, at one point a large group of demonstrators pulled out homemade shields, and initiating a clash with the riot police. The violent mob burned garbage cans, and threw stones, fireworks and smoke bombs at the police.
A video shared on social media by Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto and former Democratic Party senator Stefano Esposito shows the moment a group of demonstrators surround and brutally attack a police officer, ten against one, kicking and beating him with a hammer. (Viewer discretion advised.)
The unjustifiable violence was immediately condemned by politicians across the political spectrum. Even Democratic Party (PD) General Secretary Elly Schlein, who normally tends to condone the agressive behaviour of leftist radicals, said what happened is “unacceptable.” PM Meloni strongly condemned the violence against law enforcement officers, declaring that the state will not back down in the face of extremist groups. She said
What happened today in Turin is serious and unacceptable. These are neither dissent nor protest: they are violent aggressions aimed at attacking the state and those who represent it. And for this reason they must be treated for what they are, without deductions and without justifications.
Meloni added that what the protesters committed should be considered “attempted murder.”
The Italian PM on Sunday paid a visit at the hospital to the 29 policemen recovering from the injuries they sustained during the attack by the violent mob, posting a picture of her shaking hands with the two most seriously wounded officers.
In her post on X, she said she has convoked a government meeting for Monday, to discuss new threats to public security and the new norms to be included in the Security Decree. She concluded by stating:
We will do what it takes to restore the law in this nation.
According to reports, the extremists also assaulted the crew of Italian state television Rai, who were beaten, threatened, and their equipment destroyed.
