October 18, 2026
The wave of student protests that swept a number of European countries over the past weeks has spread to Italy. Massive marches in several cities turned into direct confrontations with security forces, amid a state of overwhelming anger towards the deteriorating educational conditions, the high cost of living, and the increase in defense spending.
According to what the British newspaper “Daily Mail” reported, masked protesters resorted to throwing Molotov cocktails, firecrackers, and empty bottles at police officers, while others used fire extinguishers to confront riot police, similar to the protests that France and Belgium witnessed recently. The demonstrators raised several demands, the most prominent of which were the call to set a ceiling on the number of foreign students, and objection to increasing the defense budget, demanding that those funds be redirected to support the education sector.
In the capital, Rome, students marched towards the Ministry of Education, using firecrackers and smoke bombs against the ministry building, and chanting slogans against the Minister of Education, Giuseppe Valdtara. Local media reported that a group of about 50 people blocked the roads, using garbage cans as barriers. For its part, the Rome Police announced that it is reviewing video recordings to determine the identities of those involved in the violence, stressing that these movements did not affect plans to maintain public order.
In the city of Genoa, protesters raised slogans denouncing both Minister Giuseppe Valdtara and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and threw eggs at posters bearing their pictures. In Turin, the police resorted to using water cannons to disperse the protesters, who responded by throwing stones at security personnel. Thousands of demonstrators headed towards the Regional Education Office, where they threw eggs at police and set fire to a miniature tank made of cardboard, as an expression of protest against the allocation of taxpayer money for armaments.
The protests witnessed the participation of a number of teachers, some of whom were keen to stand as human shields between the police and students. In the city of Treviso, local media reported that students of Canova Secondary School left the school campus through the windows and went beyond the gates to join the march, amid accusations that the school administration closed the exits to prevent them from participating. In the city of Bari, the students confirmed that their movement comes in protest against the deterioration of the educational infrastructure, considering that the increase in military spending represents a stark contrast to the crises that the sector is suffering from.
With this escalation, the scope of student anger expands on the European continent, with Italy becoming the latest station for protests to move from classrooms to city streets.
