Piantedosi: 'In Turin, subversive strategy against the State. Those who parade with the antagonists offer prospects of impunity"

The briefing to the Chamber, therefore, is part of a context of increasing attention by the Ministry of the Interior to the signs of radicalisation and to the evolution of street patterns, with a particular focus on devastation and damage.

In the harshest passage of the urgent report to Montecitorio on the clashes in Turin during the pro-Askatasuna demonstration, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi spoke of 'episodes of organised violence against the State' and against the forces of law and order, arguing that on these facts 'there can be no hypocrisy, silence or ambiguity', but 'a firm condemnation'. The minister added that, in his view, it is no longer a question of controversial ways of exercising the right to demonstrate, but rather of a 'systematic strategy of subversion of the democratic order'.

Piantedosi then recalled the reason for the mobilisation: the protest against the eviction of the Askatasuna social centre, defined as 'an operation to restore legality', which was, moreover, 'belated', and aimed - in his words - at 'restoring to public use' an asset 'illegally occupied'. A reference that directly links the riots to the issue of public order and the management of occupied spaces, at the centre of political and institutional confrontation.

In the chapter devoted to prevention measures after the events in Turin on 31 January, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi announced to the Chamber of Deputies that the Viminale is working 'on the introduction of specific measures' to make 'even more effective filtering and prevention action', citing among the hypotheses the police arrest of 'potentially dangerous subjects' whose 'intentions and attitudes' are already known. According to the minister, similar instruments already exist in 'some European legal systems' without being read as an 'attack on democracy'.

Piantedosi also contested the criticism of those who would attribute the incidents to alleged 'prevention deficits', arguing instead that the violence was attributable to a 'precise criminal determination'. In the minister's reasoning, rules are also needed to protect 'not only the officers who are victims of aggression, but also all citizens', specifying, however, that the aim would not be to create 'shields' or forms of immunity. "A state" that does not protect the safety of citizens and does not adequately protect the police force "would fail in its most important function", he said, defining the police force as "a bulwark of democracy and freedom": "they do not ask for immunity", but - in the minister's words - they must not be "moving targets of delinquency" or operate under a "constant and systematic presumption of guilt".