Anti-Olympics protest in Milan turns violent as Italy investigates suspected railway sabot

Anti-Olympics protest in Milan turns violent as Italy investigates suspected railway sabotage



Milan, Italy
—
Anti-Olympic protesters marched peacefully through Milan on Saturday afternoon, holding signs, marching arm-in-arm, singing and dancing. But when night fell, the demonstration turned violent as some protesters targeted police and their vans, and officials responded with tear gas and water cannons.

This comes as authorities separately investigate a series of incidents on rail lines in northern Italy that officials fear could be coordinated sabotage.

On Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni slammed the protesters as “enemies of Italy and Italians” in a social media post that showed US media coverage of the demonstrations. “Solidarity, once again, with the police, the city of Milan, and all those who will see their work undermined by these gangs of criminals,” she said.

The protest march against Olympics organizers drew groups from the city, Lombardy and the rest of northern Italy. Demonstrators voiced opposition to the environmental impacts of constructing Olympic venues, as well as what they describe as the “economic and social harm” caused by the Games.


The march was organized by an activist organization called the Unsustainable Olympics Committee, which mobilized a wide coalition of grassroots sports groups, civic and environmental movements, students, housing activists, combative unions, pro-Palestine networks and transfeminist collectives.

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