Over 150 searches carried out in Lombardy in connection with the 17 October riots. The ‘mastermind’ behind the 17 October Movement has been found

A WhatsApp group comprising numerous users, within which ‘messages of an inciting nature were posted, containing explicit intentions to assault and rob members of the police force, with the aim of seizing their service weapons, damaging service vehicles and setting fire to public buildings’ as stated in the report of the house search carried out under Article 41 of the TULPS (Consolidated Law on Public Security), which governs searches of premises by law enforcement agencies for the purpose of locating weapons.

In the same conversation, a video was identified which, ‘shared by one of the participants, showed a pistol from which the magazine was removed and the cartridges subsequently taken out, accompanied by the telling caption “Preparation”’, as stated in the court order.

The messages also relate to the organisation of the demonstration scheduled for today, 24 October, which has the potential to attract a very large number of participants and which, in light of the conversations, makes the risk of ‘serious unrest and incidents of collective violence’ a ‘real’ one. This is a cause for concern regarding public order and safety, which has led to searches for weapons and dangerous materials.

Law enforcement agencies are preparing for another day of marches and demonstrations, whilst the Digos and public prosecutors’ offices continue to carry out searches in various Italian cities following last week’s violence.

The so-called “17 October Movement” continues, in fact, to circulate deliberately ambiguous messages online. The advice is to avoid gatherings in central areas already patrolled by the police and the military, and to disclose meeting points only at the last minute. ‘No locations revealed in advance, no tip-offs, no cordons in place’, reads a statement from the movement. The final destination is to be announced only at 3.30 pm. Before that, participants are urged to move in groups, following three different routes: ‘three rivers flowing into one’, three processions intended ‘to come together in a single large square’. The mobilisation is therefore designed as a series of rapid, compact swarms, far from the ‘red zones’ and more difficult to intercept in advance.

In Rome, security will be comprehensive. Whilst several marches have been given prior notice, the security forces’ attention is focused primarily on unannounced demonstrations, such as the one that broke out last Sunday in Milan: events organised online, often by groups of very young people, and therefore more difficult to predict and contain.

At 10.00, the Gioventù Nazionale march is scheduled to take place, from Piazza della Libertà to Piazza Risorgimento, in the Prati district. At 3.00 pm, the ‘Asse Imperialista’ march will set off from Piazza della Repubblica to the Imperial Forums. In addition to these events, there will be a rally organised by the ‘Movimento 17 ottobre’, the details of which are still uncertain.

The risk is that streets and squares will not only be ‘overcrowded’, but that different groups may also come into contact with one another. For this reason, the plan provides for an integrated mechanism amongst the police forces. For several days now, the Cyber Security Centre in Rome has also stepped up its monitoring of OSINT web forums, paying particular attention to social media platforms, in close coordination with the DIGOS and the intelligence units of other police forces. The aim is to track movements, changes of plan and information shared online in real time.

There is also a high level of alert in Milan, where, from 2.00 pm, 500 soldiers from the Folgore Brigade – who have arrived in the city to patrol the streets – will be deployed. Across the city, some 3,000 police officers and Carabinieri are already on duty, particularly at key locations, alongside 300 local police officers provided by Palazzo Marino.

The fear is that the clashes and destruction of 17 October might be repeated, when dozens of youths marched through the town centre, smashing shop windows and tables, looting shops and tearing down road signs. The calls from the mayor and the centre-left for social cohesion are therefore not lowering the alert level.

Several static protests have been authorised in the city. From 11.00 am, USB Lombardia will be demonstrating against the high cost of living in Piazza Cavour. At the same time, Blocco Studentesco – a movement with links to the far right and CasaPound – will be in Piazza XXV Aprile. From 4 pm to 6 pm, a pro-Palestinian rally organised by the Palestinian Association in Italia is scheduled to take place in Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, with an estimated turnout of around 350 people.

No events, however, appear to have been organised in Piazza Duomo, the surrounding streets or the Cairoli area. And it is precisely here that monitoring social media takes centre stage: determining whether and how self-organised groups will act will be one of the decisive factors of the day. Stations are also on high alert.

‘Whilst we condemn acts of vandalism, violence and destruction and express our solidarity with the injured officers, it is worth asking ourselves about the causes and the strategies for tackling them – strategies which, to be truly effective, cannot rely solely on repression.’ This was stated by ANM President Giuseppe Tango – on the sidelines of the executive committee meeting of the judges’ union – who argued that ‘to claim that we can address the issues facing young people and their complexity simply by imposing harsher penalties, curtailing legal safeguards, and relying on the illusion of prisons is rather short-sighted and, above all, does not lead to a resolution of the problem. We need a collaborative effort between schools, families, the voluntary sector and institutions. This is not a battle that the judiciary and law enforcement agencies can ever win on their own’.