Beatrice Chilelli, a 21-year-old university student, said students were “at a breaking point”. “They can't afford to pay exorbitant tuition fees, and rent... which weighs heavily on their parents' shoulders,” she told reporters.
In Rome, a single room in student housing could cost 1,200 euros per month, a measure of the pressure facing young people who joined the demonstrations.
Students had spent weeks calling for greater investment in schools and more housing support. They had set up tent camps and occupied schools before the USB trade union called a general strike on Friday, 30 October, bringing workers into the streets alongside them.
Thousands of protesters marched across Italy over the rising cost of living, cuts to education funding and government defence spending. Truck drivers, taxi drivers, farmers, firefighters, students, teachers, retirees and other workers joined the protests. Farmers and truck drivers had also protested over rising fuel prices and the cost of living.
Large demonstrations were held in Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin, Bologna, Genoa, Venice and Palermo. USB said students and young people had turned out in large numbers at over 60 locations across Italy.
In Rome, demonstrators gathered near Termini railway station before leaving Piazza dei Cinquecento at around 10.40 am. Thousands then marched from the central station past the Colosseum, with two tractors and a taxi accompanying the procession.
Dancers performed as the march began, in front of a large banner condemning people accused of profiting from workers' labour while putting their future at risk. One group chanted, “We need more houses, not bombs!” as demonstrators argued that public resources should go to social needs rather than increased defence spending.
USB put participation in the general strike at 1.5 million workers and others. Student collective OSA gave a higher figure, saying two million people joined the marches.
Clashes were limited in Rome, Turin and Vicenza. In Turin's central Piazza Castello, police used water cannon and charged after students and left-wing militants tried to reach a cordon guarding the prefect's department.
In Rome, some protesters left the main march and headed towards the Colosseum. There, protesters threw objects at police, overturned trash canisters to build barricades and set fire to them and to electric scooters.
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