Eviction of Askatasuna social centre in Turin: demonstration and clashes with police, ten officers injured
After the Digos intervened in Corso Regina Margherita, demonstrators responded with violence, causing tension and a permanent garrison in the Vanchiglia district.
On 18 December 2025, a thousand activists from the Askatasuna (a Basque word meaning freedom) social centre, who were evicted yesterday morning, set off in a procession with the intention of moving on to the neighbourhood, Vanchiglia, and the rest of the city, after having spoken in the garrison. As they passed by the police forces still deployed to protect the building, the protesters threw firecrackers and bottles. The police responded by activating water cannons and the procession broke in two, then tried to regroup.
The clearing in the morning
Police evacuated the Askatasuna social centre in Turin, Corso Regina Margherita 47. The Digos of the Turin police headquarters and the mobile units entered the building, occupied since 1996.
Searches are also being conducted in the homes of militants linked to the social centre and student collectives. The building has been the subject of a common goods project for about a year. The operation is allegedly connected to the investigation on the assaults at the Ogr, at Leonardo and at the head office of the newspaper La Stampa, which took place during pro-Palestine demonstrations in the past months.
Sealed inputs
In Turin, workers arrived at the building in Corso Regina Margherita and closed the entrances. Some activists, accompanied by a lawyer, first asked the police to enter to retrieve two cats and some clothing, were escorted inside by the Digos. The garrison of activists on the street meanwhile increased in numbers and became permanent, with choruses such as: 'Askatasuna is not to be touched, we will defend it with struggle', waving a Palestine flag and one of the Autonomy Counter-Power.
Traffic on the course was blocked for both private vehicles and public transport. Avs group leader in the regional council Alice Ravinale and the group leader of the same party in the city council, Sara Diena, arrived at the scene.
