By Emilio Parodi
Police fired water cannons at protesters who threw smoke bombs in Olympic host MilanMILAN, – A group of about 100 protesters broke away from the main part of a protest in the Olympic host city of Milan on Saturday, throwing firecrackers, smoke bombs and bottles at police.
Police in riot gear and shields responded with water cannons to try to disperse the group, some of whom wore hoods and scarves to cover their faces. Order is restored after a few minutes.
According to police sources, six people were arrested during the clash.
Milano Cortina On the first full day of the Winter Olympics, an estimated 10,000 people took to the streets of Milan to protest housing costs and environmental concerns.
The march, organized by grassroots unions, housing-rights groups and social center community activists, seeks to highlight what activists call an increasingly unsustainable city model characterized by rising rents and deep inequality.
Security has been beefed up in Italy’s financial capital for the Games.
The protest was seen as a flashpoint after a hard-left rally in the city of Turin turned violent last weekend, injuring more than 100 police officers and arresting around 30 protesters, according to an interior ministry count.
Left behind Milan’s boom
The Olympics cap a decade in which Milan saw a property boom after the 2015 World Expo, with locals weighed down by Brexit as well as rising costs of living as an Italian tax scheme for wealthy new residents draws professionals to the financial capital.
Some groups also argue that the Olympics are a waste of public money and resources, pointing to infrastructure projects that they say have damaged the environment of mountain communities.
“I’m here because these Olympics are unsustainable – economically, socially and environmentally,” said 71-year-old Stefano Nutini, standing under a Communist Refoundation Party flag.
He argued that the Olympic infrastructure placed a heavy burden on mountain towns in the first widely dispersed edition of the Winter Games.
The International Olympic Committee says the Games are essentially using existing facilities, making them more sustainable
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At the head of the procession, about 50 people carried stylized cardboard trees to represent larches that they said had been cut down to make way for a new bobsleigh track in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
“Century-old trees, survivors of two wars… sacrificed for 90 seconds of competition on bobsled track costing 124 million,” read another banner.
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