Far-left Antifa radicals and anti-Israel demonstrators erupted into violence in Milan on Monday after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni refused to follow fellow European nations in recognising Palestine as a state.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said that pro-Gaza protesters “deliberately” attacked police in Milan, leaving around 60 officers injured, Italian wire service ANSA reported.
Piantedosi said that “numerous troublemakers” attempted to exploit public sympathy over the Middle East war to “commit the usual acts of pure and simple violence.”
The local Corriere della Sera newspaper said that agitators attacked police with street cobblestones, glass bottles, garbage cans, bicycles, and stones. Police attempted to disperse the mobs with teargas, however, the Milanese daily said that it only “fed the anger” of the crowds, who reportedly sang “it will be Intifada here too”. In total, around 15,000 were present in Milan.
MILAN, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 22: Clashes between protesters and riot police during a demonstration over Gaza in Milan, Italy, on September 22, 2025. (Photo by Andrea Carrubba/Anadolu via Getty Images)
MILAN, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 22: Clashes between protesters and riot police during a demonstration over Gaza in Milan, Italy, on September 22, 2025. (Photo by Andrea Carrubba/Anadolu via Getty Images)
According to broadcaster RAI, commuters faced hours of delays after protesters broke into the city’s Central train station, as well as the Porta Garibaldi and Rogoredo stations. Radicals were seen breaking through the gates of the main train station, smashing glass, and clashing with police.
Protests took place in around 80 cities and towns across Italy as labour unions went on strike on Monday, including Rome where around 50,000 demonstrated. Protesters also disrupted public transport in Turin and in Naples demonstrators were seen burning images of Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The protests came after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government in Rome refused to go along with moves by London and Paris to officially recognise Palestine as a state, despite — as critics note — the territory having no defined borders, constitution, or democratically legitimate government.
Meloni has said that although she personally supports the notion of Palestinian statehood, she has argued that officially recognising it before it is established on the ground could be counterproductive.
“If something that doesn’t exist is recognised on paper, the problem could appear to be solved when it isn’t,” she said in July.
MILAN, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 22: A view of clash between protesters and police during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Milan, Italy, on September 22, 2025. (Photo by Andrea Carrubba/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Responding to the violence in Milan, Meloni said: “Outrageous images coming from Milan: self-proclaimed ‘pro-Pal’ individuals, self-proclaimed ‘Antifa’ members, self-proclaimed ‘pacifists’ who wreak havoc on the train station and provoke clashes with law enforcement.
“Violence and destruction that have nothing to do with solidarity and that will not change a single thing in the lives of people in Gaza, but will have concrete consequences for Italian citizens, who will end up suffering and paying for the damages caused by these thugs.”
Meloni’s condemnation of Antifa leftists comes shortly after U.S. President Trump designated the anarcho-communist collective as a terrorist organisation in the wake of the killing of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Trump was followed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who said last week that Hungary would also designate Antifa as a terror group.
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