Turin: stones, sprays and a teachers' cordon

Several hundred students broke away from the Turin procession near Piazza Castello, covered their faces and threw stones and signal flares at police. Officers answered with water cannons and some tear gas. Earlier, on Corso Inghilterra, teachers who had joined the march linked arms between the students and the police lines, and protesters talked with officers so the march could continue. Police said three minors were arrested in flagrante for aggravated resistance to a public official. Two of them carried irritant sprays and one carried stones, and all three were also reported for carrying objects capable of causing harm. Police identified more than 50 protesters, some with their faces covered, and said their conduct would be referred to the judicial authorities.

“Anyone who throws stones, bottles or any other object at a police uniform automatically ends up on the wrong side.”

Regional response in Piedmont

Alberto Cirio, president of the Piedmont region, and Daniela Cameroni, its education and merit councillor, issued a joint statement condemning the violence seen in Turin that morning and in the days before. They said the region's doors remain open to students who protest peacefully, and urged the majority of students not to let a small number of violent people speak for them. The statement also said that the region would listen to and engage with student demands.

Rome and Milan

In Rome, hooded protesters threw firecrackers and 'bombe carta' near Via Marmorata and rolled rubbish bins into the road to block it. At the Education Ministry on Viale Trastevere, a group set off firecrackers against the building while chanting against Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara, and police and carabinieri in riot gear stood at the entrance. Police put the number of students at the Rome march at more than 5,000. The march ended without incident at the Citta dell'Altra Economia in Testaccio, and student groups called a public assembly for Friday, 23 October to organise the movement further. In Milan, students occupied the former morgue on Via Francesco Sforza after their march. The empty building is owned by the city and given to the state university to use as a teaching site.

Genoa, Bologna and other cities

In Genoa, students from the Osa movement placed effigies of Giorgia Meloni and Valditara upside down near rubbish bins and pelted them with eggs, in memory of what happened to Benito Mussolini at Piazzale Loreto in Milan on 29 April 1945. A cardboard tank was burned outside the Confindustria Genoa headquarters. The strike, titled 'No Meloni Day', was called against the Valditara decree, the cost of living, petrol prices and a reform of technical and vocational schools. In Bologna, tension broke out with police at the railway station, and some secondary schools were closed, in one case with chains, to stop students getting in. Demonstrations were also held in Venice, Padua, Treviso, Florence and Cagliari, where protesters dubbed the day 'No Meloni Day'.