The Leoncavallo Social Centre cleared: the Right rejoices. National demonstration on 6 September

There have been 133 eviction attempts against the so-called 'Leonka'. Last November, the Ministry of the Interior was even condemned in the Court of Appeal to pay compensation of EUR 3 million to the real estate company Orologio owned by the Cabassi family, which owns the area, precisely because of the failure to evict it. The Viminale had thus decided to retaliate against the Mamme del Leoncavallo association, which had submitted an expression of interest to the municipality for a property in Via San Dionigi, which could represent a first step towards moving the social centre from the space in Via Watteau.

The execution of the eviction, according to the Prefecture of Milan, 'will make it possible to avoid further claims against the State. At the end of the operations, the structure was handed back to the property to be made safe,' Palazzo Diotti continues.

The militants, after the intervention of the police, reached via Watteau. "It is an executive eviction. We will have 30 days to come to an agreement with the property to take some things,' say the Mamme del Leoncavallo, who are trying to take stock of the situation. "Leoncavallo is certainly gone," they note sadly, speaking of "a tragedy, but preferring to wait for more statements."

Next steps are being considered: 'We will certainly turn to the city for feedback,' emphasises Marina Boer, the president of the Mamme del Leoncavallo association. "We hope this is not the end," she added, aware that "looking for an alternative is very difficult. The way in which this phase has ended is very sad and painful and gives the image of a desire for non-dialogue,' she added.

'Leoncavallo is a collective place and makes collective decisions, we have to have an assembly,' Boer continues. 'We knew the advance could happen. A delegation from FdI went to Rome to ask to do it earlier. We knew they could do it earlier, but we hoped to get to September,' she adds.

For Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi: 'The eviction of the Leoncavallo social centre marks the end of a long season of illegality. For thirty years that building has been occupied illegally. And to the damage was added the mockery: the State was even forced to pay compensation for the damage of the occupation. Today, legality is finally being re-established. The government has a clear line: zero tolerance for squatting. Since the beginning of our mandate, almost 4,000 properties have already been cleared. The Leoncavallo eviction is just another step in a constant and determined strategy that we will continue to pursue.

Political reactions were numerous. The Minister of Infrastructure Matteo Salvini, on his social profiles, comments: 'Decades of illegality tolerated, and repeatedly supported, by the left: now at last we are changing. The law is the same for everyone: afuera!".

Of a different opinion Nicola Fratoianni of Avs: 'Nothing is more lacking in our cities than social, cultural and democratic spaces, but despite this the governing right is acting to reduce them even further, by evicting the Leoncavallo in Milan, an experience that for over thirty years has enriched the social life of the city, making itself available to hundreds of associations and several generations of artists and activists. This eviction is the eviction of those who do not tolerate politics as an organisation from below of people because they conceive it only as an activity to support speculation and lobbies'.

He is echoed by MEP Ilaria Salis: 'No respect for 50 years of history of movements, counter-culture, youth aggregation, politics from below'. For the secretary of Più Europa Riccardo Magi the eviction 'is propaganda, not security'. Alessandro Cappelli, secretary of the Milanese PD, speaks of 'Ministers of legality on alternate plates: distracted when CasaPound remains serenely in its place in the centre of Rome'.

A topic, the latter, on which the debate on social media is growing. "Even today No," reads the now historic account on social X which is called: "Have they cleared out the CasaPound headquarters?" and which almost daily tweets the answer to the question. The bio explains that 'Daily updates are posted on the turtle-infested building in Via Napoleone III in Rome', the building occupied by Casapound. Today there are more reposts than usual, with obvious reference to the Leoncavallo eviction. Even the post of Elio Vito, former minister in the Berlusconi government, with the rhetorical question: 'In Milan the historic Leoncavallo social centre has been cleared out. Now it's Casapound's turn, isn't it?".

There are also voices from abroad: 'The Leoncavallo social centre was a political school for us. The movement of the White Overalls was born there in 1994 and there we conspired to prepare the counter-summits in Prague and Genoa', writes the Spaniard Pablo Iglesias on twitter, the former leader of Podemos who worked closely with the activists of the historic social centre when he was very young in the period of the no-global mobilisations. "I hope they find a new space soon. Fausto and Iaio always in our memory,' Iglesias concludes.

In the meantime, Leoncavallo has opened a fundraiser, indeed a 'resistance box' for its 'right to exist. In its 50th year of history, Leoncavallo is under eviction. The current space in Via Watteau,' the Leonka explains on its website, 'is in real danger of disappearing forever. That is why we have decided to open a Cassa di Resistenza. We ask you to donate to the Cassa each* according to his or her abilities...'. An appeal 'to the antifascist realities, to civil society, to the Milanese left to stand up in defence of self-management with a donation to the Cassa di Resistenza delle Mamme Antifasciste!' to which the provincial Anpi of Milan has already responded, which the centre thanked with a story on Instagram for the donation.