Demonstrations over school funding and discrimination coincide with protests by truckers, farmers and climate activists.

On Friday, thousands of students and teachers took to the streets in several Italian cities to protest the policies of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

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The protests followed several days marked by a wave of school occupations in Milan, Naples, Turin, Genoa, Bologna and Rome.

The nationwide mobilization, dubbed “No Meloni Day,” combined demands over budget allocations with direct criticism of the Italian government’s environmental policies.

Student groups denounced the progressive deterioration of school infrastructure and called for the €13 billion allocated to military spending to be redirected toward education.

Representatives of the Alternative Student Opposition criticized the rising cost of living and announced a general strike scheduled for Oct. 30.

Un carro armato di cartone è stato dato alle fiamme durante il corteo degli studenti a Torino. Alcuni manifestanti hanno incendiato il modellino con fumogeni colorati, accompagnati dai cori "Brucia, brucia" e dallo slogan "Noi la guerra non la paghiamo", per protestare contro le… pic.twitter.com/RM7BH94cf9

— Sky tg24 (@SkyTG24) October 16, 2026

The text reads, “During a student protest in Turin, a cardboard tank was set on fire. Demonstrators ignited the model using colored smoke flares, chanting “Burn, Burn!” and the slogan “We will not pay for war,” as a form of protest against military spending.

The demonstration was part of the “No Meloni Day”—a day of student mobilization against the government’s educational policies, rising tuition costs, and increased military expenditure.

Similar protests took place across Italy, specifically in Rome, Milan, Florence, Genoa, Venice, Padua, Treviso, and Cagliari. In the capital, organizers estimated the turnout at 20,000 people, while in Turin, more than 2,500 students took to the streets.”

During marches in Rome, tensions escalated when some protesters threw firecrackers and trash containers outside the Education Ministry. Riot police and Carabinieri officers established security cordons and used tear gas to disperse the crowd on Via Marmorata.

“Thousands of students marched from the Colosseum to the Education Ministry. Tensions rose because of a group of masked protesters who threw bottles and improvised explosive devices at law enforcement officers, as well as discharged fire extinguishers,” RaiNews reported.

Similar clashes occurred in Turin and Bologna outside the prefecture and the central railway station, where police responded with water cannons. The violence led to confrontations involving blunt objects, the detention of a masked minor and severe disruptions to rail traffic in northern Italy.

"No Meloni Day"
Police charges against students
in Rome and Turin. pic.twitter.com/5IGt2pUQLU

— 𝕃𝕦𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕟𝕠 𝕃𝕦𝕝𝕫 (@altrella_l) October 16, 2026

Students Reject Discrimination and Racism

Thousands of people marched peacefully in Milan, holding signs and chanting slogans in support of social integration. Youth organizations strongly opposed Meloni’s “Valditara Decree,” which they described as discriminatory and racist.

In effect since June, the decree bans sex and relationship education at the preschool and elementary school levels and requires parental consent to address these topics at other educational levels. It also sets a maximum of 30% for foreign students in each classroom.

“Are these really the problems that need to be solved?” and “Racists out of our schools!” protesters shouted, according to RAI News.

“An entire generation has taken to the streets because it refuses to bow its head — to mind its own business — while others destroy our future,” said Alice, who linked the student movement’s demands to the genocide in Gaza.

“And it all starts right here, in our schools. The pro-Palestinian demonstrations made that clear: Some people have blood on their hands — the blood of genocides taking place around the world — and those same hands are cutting funding for our schools, our lives, and a dignified future in this city.”

“Outside the regional education authority’s headquarters, some participants threw eggs filled with red paint, declaring, ‘This is the blood of Gaza and Palestine,’” RaiNews reported.

No Meloni day here in Italy and antifascist students are facing-off with her cops right now in Bologna. Solidarity comrades.
No Fascism. No Genocide. No Meloni. pic.twitter.com/wQsgtjRRV2

— GhostofDurruti (@DurrutiRiot) November 14, 2025

Truckers, Farmers and Environmentalists Voice Discontent

On Friday, southern Italy faced a severe fuel shortage in the provinces of Calabria, Basilicata and Apulia because of protests by truckers and farmers. Steelworkers’ blockades at Eni’s Taranto refinery brought gas stations to a standstill, causing long lines and operational difficulties for public transportation.

The transport industry association Conftrasporto reported an increase of more than 50 euro cents per liter in diesel prices and demanded the immediate release of budget funds.

Facing the imminent risk of supply shortages, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport called an emergency meeting with industry representatives for Oct. 27.

The student mobilization also coincided with global protests organized by “Fridays for Future” in support of climate action and against fossil fuels.

Italian environmentalists marched to the Environment Ministry in Rome to demand reductions in polluting emissions and action to combat energy poverty across the country.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: RAI – EFE – teleSUR

The public education system in Madrid – teachers and students alike – launched an indefinite strike on Wednesday, October 14. Tens of thousands emptied classrooms and took to the streets, demanding an end to the regional government’s education policy – warning that it promotes privatization.

Episodes of police violence were reported near part of the education sites.

Read more: Spanish unions announce general strike over housing

A joint union front, including sectoral branches of the General Union of Workers (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT), the Workers’ Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CCOO), and the General Confederation of Labor (Confederación General del Trabajo, CGT), among others, started building the mobilization months ago. 

While preparing the strike, they tabled demands including wage increases, investment into education infrastructure, and smaller class sizes.

A strike to defend quality public education

“Madrid’s teachers have said ‘enough is enough’ in the face of regional policies that seek to dismantle public services in favor of private management, demonstrating a profound contempt for the inclusive school, one that equalizes, protects, and guarantees real opportunity for the future of children and the working class,” the union front stated.

“This strike is not just for teachers,” UGT Public Services Madrid emphasized in a statement. “We are defending quality public education for students and their families, who are the ones who suffer the consequences of overcrowded classrooms and staff shortages.”

Union demands were endorsed by students, including the student union Sindicato de Estudiantes. “Ceilings are crumbling, there is no air conditioning, facilities are outdated, and students are forced to learn in makeshift and portable classrooms or overcrowded spaces,” the organization stated.

Student union recognizes strike’s “decisive moment”

Students and teachers insist on the responsibility borne for the crisis by the regional People’s Party government led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Ayuso was also an often-quoted name in recent housing mobilizations in Madrid, where demonstrators linked the right-wing party’s policies with the ongoing housing crisis – including the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal.

The education strike, Sindicato de Estudiantes wrote, is a “way to involve the entire working class and youth against a reactionary government that not only does business with public education, but is selling our neighborhoods to vulture funds and rentier landlords who speculate on housing, one that steals money from public health to hand it to companies and the corrupt …”

Read more: Students in France are fighting for stronger public education

In their communications, student associations echoed the historic school strikes taking place in France. “Also very present in the minds of Madrid students, as in the entire State, are the events shaking France and Belgium: the enormous student strikes of our colleagues that have filled Paris and dozens of cities, and the brutal police repression that they have had to endure,” they wrote. “We know that we are in a decisive moment, and like them, we will fulfill our task.”

Strong adherence to the education strike gives hope for an even stronger mobilization on November 11, when Spain’s labor movement has called for a general strike to increase wages, fight against the cost of living crisis, and overhaul the country’s housing policy.

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