The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, condemned the recent protests against the Olympic Games in Milan and the alleged sabotage of rail infrastructure, calling the perpetrators “enemies of Italy and Italians” in the early hours of Sunday.
She wrote on her social media: “The protesters are ‘protesting against the Olympics’, causing these images to be shown on televisions around the world. After others cut the railway cables to prevent trains from departing,” Meloni said, adding that thousands of Italians, including many volunteers, are working to ensure the Games run smoothly. “Once again, solidarity with the police, the city of Milan and all those whose work would be harmed by these gangs of criminals.”
The Italian Ministry of Transport said it opened a terrorism investigation into the synchronized sabotage of railway lines in northern Italy on Saturday, the first day of the Games.
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No one claimed responsibility for the attack, ANSA reported.
The alleged sabotage first hit Bologna’s distribution center, which controls rail traffic between the north and south of Italy, around 6 a.m. on Saturday, when it was still dark, ANSA reported. It then hit trains in the Pesaro region along the Adriatic coast.
According to the agency, in both cases the infrastructure was set on fire or cut to provoke the sabotage. Thousands of passengers were affected by delays that lasted for hours.
In Milan, Italian police fired tear gas and water cannons on Saturday night at dozens of demonstrators who were throwing fireworks and trying to access a highway near one of the Winter Olympic facilities.
The brief clash occurred at the end of a peaceful march of thousands of people against the environmental impact of the Games and the presence of American agents in Italy.
The clash comes days after the government of Meloni approved a security decree allowing police to detain people for up to 12 hours when there are reasonable grounds to believe they may act as agitators and disrupt peaceful protests. Opposition lawmakers criticized the measure, calling it an attack on freedom of expression.
The peaceful protest is legitimate, but “we draw a line when it comes to violence,” said the spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, Mark Adams, during a Sunday press conference. “That has no place at the Olympic Games.”
The police contained the violent demonstrators, who apparently tried to reach the ice hockey rink of the Santagiulia Olympic Complex after the clash. By then, the peaceful protest, which included families with young children and students, had already dispersed.
Protesters carried cardboard cutouts representing the trees felled for the construction of the new bobsled track in Cortina. A group of dancers performed to the beat of drums. Music blared from a truck leading the march, including a chorus full of swear words against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
James Whitmore