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Milan: Not everyone in Milan is smiling about the coming of the Winter Olympics. In the afterglow of a well-crafted opening ceremony, the city played host to a sizeable protest against those same Games.
A protest on Saturday (local time) that numbered in the thousands – it likely exceeded the forecast of 3000, based on this masthead’s estimate – brought together a coalition of left-leaning groups and individuals with varying and overlapping grievances against the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics.
Protesters from the unsustainable Olympic committee hold carboard trees in Milan on Saturday.Credit: Getty Images
The protest, while peaceful, ended in tears after three hours. Police set up a road block, endured some fireworks that were exploded near them, and then dispensed tear gas, which resulted in the small front line of protesters scurrying away in retreat from the road block in Milan’s Corvetto neighbourhood.
Among the variety of dissenters at the march were peaceful environmentalists, headed by a group known as APE (Associazione Proletari Escursionisti), which carried cardboard depictions of trees and condemned the felling of 500 trees in Cortina for the Games.
There were also widespread objections to spending public funds on the Olympics when Milan and Italy had more pressing priorities for taxpayer money.
“People like us have to pay with their taxes,” said Davide Forsati, a middle-aged protester from APE, who carried a cardboard tree.
Davide Forsati was part of the protest against the Winter Olympics in Milan.Credit: Jake Niall
Further objections were again voiced against the presence of the Trump administration’s ICE agents in Milan for the Olympics: a sign read “ICE out for Minneapolis”.
Several banners and signs had a minus sign next to “Olimpiadi [Olympics]” and a plus sign alongside “sport di base”, which means grassroots sport.
Increases in rent, which were purportedly worsened by the higher demand from the Olympics, were a black mark against the 2026 Games, according to protesters whom this masthead spoke with.
Jessica Todaro, a unionist from the CUB (Confererazione Unitaria di Base), said she didn’t oppose the Olympics, but was protesting what she saw as organisers’ mismanagement, and the exploitation of hotel workers during this period.
Unionist Jessica Todaro at the protest against the Winter Olympics in Milan.Credit: Jake Niall
“In general we do support the Olympics, as a means of peace between people, especially wartimes,” Todaro said of her union group.
“These Winter Olympics have been turned into a money-making machine – it is an Olympics of millionaires … The rates of the hotels are going up. But the wages are not going up at all … the problem is how the Olympics are being managed. The Olympics must be managed in a way that gives back to the city we’re in.
“We think it hasn’t been managed well because it’s only worsened a problem that was already there. It is a very luxurious event, very pricey event, all the luxurious hotels have been earning lots and lots of money. The poor people working there are still poor.”
The local pro-Palestine movement – which stages weekly protests in Milan – was prominent with flags and chants of “free Palestine” in both Italian and English.
Police officers at the protest.Credit: Getty Images
Vincenzo Strambio, an older pro-Palestine marcher who was not part of the official Palestine group, took issue with Israel’s participation in the Games when Russian athletes were not given the imprimatur of their country due to the Ukraine war. Another marcher objected to one of the Games’ sponsors with links to Israel.
A younger woman, Rosella, was also pro-Palestine, but was against the Milano Cortina Olympics for several reasons. “I think all these struggles are interconnected,” she said.
A protester objects to the costs of staging the Winter Olympics in Milan.Credit: Getty Images
There were banners bearing the hammer and sickle – a communist symbol – some for a political party called “Rifundazione Communista”, which translates as the Communist Restoration Party (an offshoot of the former Italian Communist Party).
The march was slow in pace, yet long in duration, stretching from 3pm until dark, which is when the denouement came through the fireworks and tear gas.
Police, who were equipped with riot gear – and backed up by the Carabinieri, Italy’s military police – had walked ahead of the protesters, keeping themselves about 100 metres away from the action until they reached a ring road where they drew their line in the bitumen.
This distance between the police and protest ensured that the only fireworks witnessed were actually fireworks.
This might not be the final protest against the Olympics, either. Marchers suggested that there would be another one in Verona, about 150 kilometres from Milan, on the final day of the Games.
There was also widespread rail disruption for those travelling to the Winter Olympics on Saturday, as London’s The Telegraph reported that Italian police were investigating three separate incidents of sabotage.
The Winter Olympic Games will be broadcast on the 9Network, 9Now and Stan Sport.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
