Hashtags, Telegram groups gaining a thousand new members within hours and printable posters calling for demonstrations in eight cities: following the smashed shop windows and widespread looting in Milan, Italy’s protest movement is not only continuing but increasingly organising online.

The violence in Milan has prompted the Italian government to deploy soldiers to help police the city, even as activists prepare a new wave of demonstrations.

Two names repeatedly appear in online discussions: the 17 October Movement (Movimento 17 ottobre) and Italy in the Square (Italia in Piazza). Behind them is a loose network of grassroots organisations, anarchist groups, students and activists linked to the No Tav movement, which opposes the construction of the Turin–Lyon high-speed railway.

Within these online groups, manuals on street confrontations are being circulated, polls are being held on which shops could be targeted, and plans are being announced for an indefinite campaign of protests aimed at bringing down Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government.

🇮🇹 Italianos se revoltam contra o governo, custo de vida e reformas de cunho neoliberal, realizando grandes protestos em Milão que se assemelham a distúrbios civis. A polícia foi obrigada a recuar devido ao tamanho da revolta. https://t.co/BpWduSAALP

— Análise Geopolítica (@AnaliseGeopol) October 18, 2026

Weekly protests until the government falls

Following the violent demonstrations in Milan and other Italian cities, newly formed groups and activist organisations have begun claiming responsibility for organising the protests.

Calls to demonstrate are spreading rapidly through Instagram and TikTok hashtags, as well as Telegram channels and groups.

The 17 October Movement has announced a campaign of continuous mobilisation every Saturday at 3pm, until what it describes as the “government of thieves” is brought down.

The Instagram account @movimento17ottobre, created just days ago, is attempting to establish a political identity for those involved in the demonstrations.

In one post, it blames the violence on the political establishment and security forces. Another features a video entitled “Proletarian expropriation in Milan”, showing goods taken during the looting being handed to a homeless person.

The account also directs followers to a Telegram group where members discuss and organise their next actions.

Its Instagram following has exceeded 2,500, while the Telegram group has attracted more than 1,000 members. Its administrators use the signature “M1710”.

📢Nasce il “Movimento 17 ottobre”: su Instagram annuncia una “mobilitazione permanente” ogni sabato alle 15 in varie piazze, a partire da Milano, “fino alla caduta di questo governo”. Tra i post, il video del bottino dei saccheggi donato a un senzatetto. https://t.co/MQqhvhXNdr

— Italia 24H Live 🔴 – Notizie dall’Italia (@Italia24HLive) October 19, 2026

Demonstrations planned in eight cities on 24 October

Online material identifies eight planned gatherings in Italy, with the next major day of mobilisation scheduled for 24 October.

The demonstrations are due to take place at the following locations:

• Milan: Piazza Duomo
• Bologna: Piazza Nettuno
• Turin: Piazza Castello
• Rome: Circo Massimo
• Florence: Piazza Santa Maria Novella
• Padua: Piazza Mazzini
• Bari: Piazza Umberto I
• Genoa: Piazza De Ferrari

Participants in the online discussions have called for separate posters to be produced for each city so they can be printed and distributed locally.

The wider network appears to have links with Italy’s anarchist and anti-establishment movements, left-wing grassroots organisations, student groups and the No Tav campaign.

Among those mentioned are Csa Lambretta and Deriva, which have established a legal support service for young people detained during the unrest in Milan.

🚨 Piazza del Duomo, Milano, Italia 🇮🇹 Le forze dell’ordine sono nettamente in inferiorità numerica rispetto ai rivoltosi https://t.co/Kjs5YZVHRx

— Roberto Avventura (@RobertoAvventu2) October 18, 2026

What the Telegram conversations reveal: Manuals, polls and fears of arrest

Documents aimed at people taking part in the demonstrations are also being shared within the Telegram group.

Among them is Safer in the Street, a guide offering practical advice on attending protests.

Screenshots indicate that an anarchist manual already available online has also been circulated, alongside discussions about preparing for street confrontations.

One exchange even includes a poll asking which shops could be targeted for destruction.

Not all participants, however, agree on the same approach. “We need better organisation, both for confrontation and defence. Many people were seriously injured yesterday,” one member writes.

Another argues that participants need training to prepare for confrontations.

There are also concerns that further arrests could undermine the momentum of the movement. One user stresses the need to take precautions “to avoid dozens of kids being arrested”.

Others warn about the consequences of violence. “They demand a future and end up destroying it, getting a criminal record at the age of 18,” one participant observes.

The security of online communications is another concern.”A Telegram group isn’t really that secure,” one user writes, while others suggest switching to the Signal messaging app.

Rules established by the group’s administrators warn members to consider the possibility that a participant’s mobile phone could be seized or that an informant might be present in the group. At the same time, those rules explicitly prohibit discussions about illegal activities.

🚨Itália 🇮🇹: Assim como em Paris, o vandalismo que assola a Europa atinge a cidade de Milão na Itália. As imagens são deste domingo à noite na “piazza dello uomo” https://t.co/gj7DC6WCqO

— Ivan Kleber (@lordivan22) October 18, 2026

‘Italia in Piazza’ and links to the radical left

The Instagram account Italia in Piazza (@italiainpiazza17) appeared in early October.

It began circulating calls for nationwide demonstrations on 17 October using the hashtag #italiainpiazza.

The protest poster described the event as a “peaceful gathering of citizens, as guaranteed by Article 17 of the Constitution”.

The principal grievances concerned the cost of living, wages, employment, public healthcare, education and public safety.

The appeals were shared by pages including Fronte Rivoluzionario Italiano (Italian Revolutionary Front) and Rinascenza, while organisations associated with the radical left also helped publicise the demonstrations.

The extra-parliamentary Partito dei CARC party, in an article published on 16 October, expressed support for the protesters’ demands, linking their social and economic grievances to the political objective of overthrowing Meloni’s government.

Nevertheless, despite the connections identified between different organisations and activist networks, establishing whether a single coordinating centre exists behind the protests remains difficult, if not impossible.

More than €1 million in damage from looting

According to prosecutors, the young people arrested in Milan following two days of widespread destruction demonstrated an “extraordinary ease in carrying out sudden acts of destruction and acts of exceptional violence”.

Their “criminal capacity”, as prosecutors describe it, was displayed with such intensity that several luxury boutiques in the city centre remained closed over fears of further looting and clashes.

Among the businesses affected were stores belonging to major fashion and jewellery houses, including Hermès, Chanel and Pomellato.

The toll from the weekend, marked by scenes resembling urban warfare, has been severe.

Excluding lost revenue, material damage is estimated to exceed €1 million, covering smashed shop windows, destroyed fittings and stolen merchandise.

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala condemned the behaviour as “unacceptable and unjustifiable” during a visit to several damaged shops, accompanied by Carlo Sangalli, president of the Italian retailers’ confederation Confcommercio. “I have the feeling that these moments of tension are not over,” the mayor added.

Most of the approximately 50 arrested are minors

Of the approximately 50 people arrested, only 11 are adults, aged between 18 and 24. All the others are under 18.

Groups of young people, some of them extremely young, engaged in apparently unprovoked vandalism, causing scenes of fear and disorder along Milan’s shopping streets and reaching as far as Piazza Duomo.

The figures remain provisional, with investigations continuing and the possibility that more suspects will be identified.

Charges brought by the ordinary public prosecutor’s office and the juvenile prosecutor’s office include extensive destruction and looting, offences carrying prison sentences of between eight and 15 years, as well as resisting the authorities with multiple aggravating circumstances.

According to judicial officials, the cases highlight a new and unprecedented phenomenon that prosecutors and police investigators are now trying to understand and confront.

🇮🇹 Italian patriots take to the streets of Milan to defend Italy from migrant looters and rioters… The police and the army should be the ones doing this Writer: Samuel https://t.co/XHoWNqCChU

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 18, 2026

Young ‘casseurs’ and a new wave of violence

Children as young as 12 or 13 have suddenly emerged as casseurs, the French term used to describe rioters who engage in violent confrontations and destruction, despite having no experience of the social anger associated with France’s troubled suburbs.

Some adopt the appearance of the so-called maranza, an Italian youth subculture associated with a distinctive style of dress and behaviour, although they do not necessarily belong to it.

Those involved include children from working families, second- and third-generation immigrants who do not identify with their parents, despite the latter having integrated into Italian society, and Italian teenagers from different social backgrounds who appear disorientated and lacking stable points of reference in the adult world.

The overwhelming majority are under 18, while many come from outside Milan, including Varese, Lecco, Novara, Turin and other towns across northern Italy and the wider metropolitan area. The young people flooded central Milan’s streets and, on Saturday, infiltrated the authorised Italia in Piazza demonstration.

On Sunday, however, they assembled in smaller groups with the apparent intention of attacking property and causing destruction, without an obvious motive or any indication that they were being directed by an organised political movement.

What united them was a willingness to attack security forces, throwing rubbish baskets, bins, tables, paving stones and glass bottles. Police officers were injured in the attacks.

Salvini: ‘Some people wanted someone to be killed’

“Some people wanted someone to be killed,” declared Italian Deputy Prime Minister and League leader Matteo Salvini, in a strongly worded intervention.

He renewed his party’s calls for tougher measures to combat violence.

The continuing volatility of the situation was also evident during a centre-right gathering in Piazza Duomo, where tensions escalated into pushing, shouting and verbal abuse.

One flashpoint was a centre-right banner bearing the slogan “We will repatriate you all”, which provoked angry reactions from young people gathered around the event.

The latest wave of violence has left the justice system, particularly juvenile prosecutors, facing what officials describe as an “extraordinary” challenge in handling the cases.

As investigators attempt to establish who is directing the unrest, the online networks are already preparing for the next round of demonstrations, raising concerns that the violence which devastated parts of Milan could spread to other Italian cities.