Italy Braces for 'Autumn of Discontent' as Students Protest
Students occupied schools and set up tent camps as unions warned that inflation and stagnant wages are deepening Italy’s economic strain.
- On Friday, students across Italy occupied schools and pitched tents in Rome, Milan, and Bologna, with thousands rallying outside the education ministry to protest rising education and living costs.
- Real wages fell 6.6% between 1990 and 2026 according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, while inflation accelerated to 4.2% year-on-year in September, driven notably by fuel prices.
- Police clashed with protesters in Turin on Friday; Economist Veronica De Romanis of Luiss University attributed the unrest to "a combination of factors linked to a fear of the future."
- Hauliers' union Conftrasporto threatened a "national blockade," denouncing "the climate of tension created by the unbearable situation linked to the surge in energy prices." CGIL leader Christian Ferrari called the situation a "dramatic economic and social crisis."
- Italian media dubbed the season an "autumn of discontent" for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, while protester Riccardo, 22, called for a "new major autumn movement" to force national debate on living conditions.
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186 Articles
National protests in Italy
<p>Large-scale student protests broke out in Italy: more than 400,000 people took to the streets Students protested against problems in schools, military spending and restrictions on immigrants. About ten people were injured in the clashes police officers.</p>
Italy is preparing for a turbulent fall, following a sudden increase in inflation caused by energy prices, students, truck drivers and farmers coming out of the street in the run-up to next year's elections. Several disparate protest initiatives, some inspired by the movements in France and Spain, are united in their opposition to the extreme right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, writes RFI.
Lyceans, students and Italian professors demonstrated on Friday, demanding better conditions of study and work. This, on the eve of a national strike on 17 October in their country, for which many Italian teenagers called on the social network to "do as in France".
As in France, students are now on the streets in Italy. Not everywhere it remains peaceful. The protest is also directed against plans of the Prime Minister Meloni's government.
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