"500 more soldiers in Milan? We’re not back in the ‘Years of Lead’." The police reject the new security decree

“500 more soldiers in Milan? It’s not as if we’re back in the ‘Years of Lead’. This is an extremely dangerous step backwards.” Thus Felice Romano, general secretary of the Italian United Police Workers’ Union (Siulp), tells Il Foglio of the measure set out in the bill currently under consideration by the Council of Ministers today. The new security decree (the third to bear this name since the start of the parliamentary term) contains measures the government intends to implement in response to the clashes that ravaged the streets of Milan and Turin this weekend. Among these, indeed, is an increase in the number of officers under the ‘Strade sicure’ programme, to whom the government is also considering assigning judicial police powers. If this were to go ahead, Romano believes it would be a “reckless move”, primarily for reasons of training: “It’s as if a heart patient were to have an operation performed by an orthopaedic surgeon simply because he wears the same white coat as a cardiac surgeon. Before outsourcing such matters to soldiers trained to take down the enemy, why not make greater use of the Carabinieri or the Guardia di Finanza, who, whilst having military status, are trained in police duties? The rigidity of the military model,” says the secretary, “is ill-suited to the specific demands and fast-paced nature of street policing.” 

According to Romano, more military personnel on the streets would not act as a deterrent. Quite the opposite. “The risk is that, faced with an increase in military presence, the violent elements on the other side will arm themselves in turn. And that leads to an escalation with a predictable outcome. No, thank you.” After all, he continues, “a show of force triggers a reaction of force. Instead, what has made our security system great has also been its ability to remain unseen, whilst still being present.” The proposal to grant soldiers judicial police powers is also excessive. “The possibility of making arrests, limited to the ‘Safe Streets’ operation during emergencies, might be acceptable. But a system in which the military is simply granted authorisation to act purely in the name of public order, as judicial police officers, is untenable,” emphasises Romano. “It only leads to confusion, and risks undermining the work of the 452,000 men and women who, in this country, have ensured the growth of an advanced democracy such as Italy’s.”

In addition to Siulp, many other trade unions in the sector (such as Siap, Coisp and Silp Cgil) have roundly rejected the measure from Palazzo Chigi. Alongside the security issue, there is also the economic issue. According to Giuseppe Tiani, general secretary of Siap, before providing further funding for the deployment of the military, the government would do better to find “the 117 million euros for overtime worked by police officers in 2025 and still unpaid, despite the savings made over the last three years on standard overtime due to staff shortages”. Romano shares this view, emphasising how the sector has already been severely weakened over the years by “cuts totalling 4 billion euros – the largest cut suffered by the public administration”.

Muscle-flexing aside, yet another crackdown on security is not reassuring for a government nearing the end of its term. According to Romano, “this shows that the previous decree was not effective. Also because, based on my experience, I can say that simply increasing statutory penalties, or taking repressive action, is of no use. Rather,” he adds, “we need to focus on prevention, starting with families. First and foremost by making parents pay the fines for shop windows smashed by their children”. Despite the political controversy, however, the problem of maintaining public order in Milan and Turin, according to the trade unionist, is linked to the fact that in those cities “we have witnessed a new phenomenon that is taking everyone by surprise and is sweeping across Europe, from Sweden to France, where young people, via the internet and under the guidance of a few hotheads, are expressing their dissatisfaction – not because of the high cost of living, not because of high energy prices or unemployment, but because they don’t have the latest iPhone model or a designer jacket. So much so that on Sunday – he claims – they were merely trying to occupy a section of the square to divert our attention, whilst their mates went off to smash the windows of the big brand shops to loot them.” 

This is a phenomenon against which the current public order system has not held up very well. “The organisational models we had need to be adapted to this change. It is no longer just those wishing to protest for a sacrosanct right who take to the streets, but also gangs of youths who take advantage of the situation to commit petty crimes.” How can we respond? “Through prevention services – but carried out by the relevant departments, mobile units, the Digos and anti-crime units – which monitor both the criminal phenomenon and its new perpetrators, and then seek to prevent it as well as crack down on it. Social conflicts are tackled by understanding the dynamics that drive them, and then defusing them.” 

The government’s decree, however, calls for a much larger military presence in the cities. And in taking stock of this government’s overall performance, Romano highlights both the positives and the negatives. “Over the past four years, significant financial investments have been made; for example, a further 5,000 staff members have been recruited. Yet,” he concludes, “the approach taken to security concerns has not always convinced us.” And today we have a new example of this.