Tents outside the Chamber of Deputies

Students from the Unione degli Universitari (UDU) pitched tents in front of Montecitorio on 12 October and say they will stay until the government engages with them. The action is part of a national campaign called 'Cara Italia, quanto ci costi?', with tents also set up at about ten Italian universities, from Milan to Lecce, Bologna to Genoa, and including Pavia and Naples. Sabrina Brizzola, the UDU national coordinator, said housing conditions have worsened since the group last pitched tents across Italy three years ago. According to the UDU, groceries now cost 320 euros a month per person and fuel prices have risen 26.8%. The protest also echoes housing and study rights mobilisations in Spain and France. The students want concrete reforms that guarantee the right to study, which they link directly to the right to housing.

Demands on funding and rents

The students asked minister Anna Maria Bernini for an urgent meeting and a discussion table on funding in the next budget law. Virginia Libero, secretary of the Giovani Democratici, put the issue of empty homes at the centre of the debate.

“We consider it essential that the government seriously deals with the empty homes that are present across our country.”

Elly Schlein, secretary of the Democratic Party, called for regulating short-term rentals by giving mayors more power, and for reinstating the rent support fund that she said the Meloni and Salvini government cancelled, worth 330 million euros. She also asked for a national plan for public housing. Angela Verdecchia of the Rete degli Studenti Medi said nine of ten schools do not meet safety standards. Elisabetta Piccolotti of AVS accused the government of wasting PNRR funds by handing them to private operators, while the students request 7 billion euros to make the university public.

Competing figures on student housing

Il Giornale, which is critical of the Democratic Party, argues the government has delivered the largest student housing plan in decades. Its figures cite 63,000 beds activated since 2022 with 1.2 billion euros, above the 60,000 target set by the PNRR. It says the first 33,000 beds are already operational and another 30,000 will become available in 2027. Brizzola disputes this count, saying only 33,000 places have been realised, short of the PNRR target, and that just 3.8% of them are public. Il Giornale puts the average room price at 500 euros a month including utilities.

Opposition support and government reply

Elly Schlein had already spoken with the students at the tents on 12 October, and Giuseppe Conte, Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli joined the visits on 13 October, according to Corriere della Sera. Maurizio Landini, speaking to reporters at Montecitorio, backed the students.

“It is a fight that concerns all of us, because they are claiming the right to have a future.”

The government's answer came from Giovanni Donzelli, head of the organisation of Fratelli d'Italia, who told Ilaria Vinattieri of UDU Roma that the students could not expect an immediate reply to a press conference call and should keep waiting. The students had called that press conference for 15:00 on 13 October and asked for the government to take part. Andrea Pace of Cgil Roma-Lazio said union members would march on 17 October for purchasing power and public services. Brizzola called for a united front at Piazza del Popolo under the banner La Via Maestra.