Anti-Olympics Protests Escalate in Milan...Prime Minister Meloni Denounces "Enemies of Italy"

Anti-Olympics protests in Milan with fireworks as Games open
Outcry over government security policies and treatment of ethnic minorities
Meloni: "Enemies of Italy are appearing on television screens"

As the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics opened, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned participants in an anti-Olympics protest in Milan as "enemies of Italy."

Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy (center), attending the opening ceremony of the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics on the 6th (local time). Reuters-Yonhap

According to Yonhap News, on the 8th (local time) Meloni wrote on her social media (SNS) that "there are enemies of Italy and of Italians who are showing an anti-Olympics image on television screens around the world." She was criticizing the anti-Olympics protest that had taken place the previous day in downtown Milan.

Citizens who took part in the protest, organized mainly by a group called the "Unsustainable Olympics Committee," voiced opposition to environmental destruction caused by the construction of Olympic venues and to the economic and social damage the Olympics would bring. They also criticized the Italian government's authoritarian law-and-order policies and its treatment of ethnic minorities. The protesters marched through the city center and passed near the Olympic Village. Fireworks and smoke bombs were reportedly launched toward the athletes' accommodations, but they were too far away to cause damage.

Clashes broke out when the protesters reached Corvetto Square while continuing their anti-Olympics march. Some participants threw fireworks at the police, and the police moved in to disperse them. When the protesters then targeted police vehicles with fireworks, the police fired tear gas and water cannons in an attempt to break up the crowd. In addition, near Bologna, a key rail hub in northern Italy, there was an act of sabotage in which power cables on a high-speed rail section were cut.

On the 7th (local time), protesters clashed with police during an anti-Olympics demonstration in Milan, Italy. AP Yonhap News

In response, Meloni stressed that "while some people cut railway cables so that trains could not depart, thousands of Italians worked to ensure that the Games could run smoothly, and many of them were volunteers," adding, "Once again, I stand in solidarity with the police, with the city of Milan, and with everyone who saw their work damaged by these criminal gangs."

Mark Adams, spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), also said at a press conference, "Peaceful protest is absolutely legitimate. We draw a line at violence. That (violence) has no place anywhere in the Olympic Games."

This Olympics was already embroiled in controversy, along with the protests, after reports emerged before the opening that agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would be deployed. However, Nicole Deal, Chief Security Officer of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), made it clear on the 5th that "I can say definitively that there are no ICE agents included as part of the U.S. delegation on the ground in Milan."