MILAN, Feb 7 (Reuters) – A group of around 100 protesters threw fireworks, smoke bombs and bottles at police after breaking away from the main body of a demonstration in the Olympic city of Milan on Saturday.
Police in riot gear and with shields responded with water cannons to try to disperse the group, some of whom wore hoods and scarves to cover their faces. Order was restored after a few minutes.
More than 5,000 people took to the streets of Milan in a protest against housing costs and environmental issues on the first full day of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
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The demonstration, organized by grassroots unions, housing rights groups and community activists from social centers, seeks to highlight what activists call an increasingly unsustainable urban model, marked by skyrocketing rents and deepening inequality.
Security in Italy’s financial capital has been beefed up for the Games.
The demonstration was seen as a point of tension after a far-left rally in the city of Turin last weekend turned violent, with more than 100 police officers injured and almost 30 protesters arrested, according to Interior Ministry figures.
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LEFT BEHIND BY THE MILAN BOOM
The Olympics caps a decade in which Milan saw a property boom following the 2015 World Expo, with local residents under pressure from rising living costs as an Italian tax scheme for wealthy new residents, coupled with Brexit, attracts professionals to the financial capital.
Some groups also argue that the Games are a waste of public money and resources, pointing to infrastructure projects that they say have harmed the environment in mountainous communities.
“I am 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 Olympic infrastructure imposed a heavy burden on the mountain towns hosting events in the first widely dispersed edition of the Winter Games.
The International Olympic Committee says the Games are largely using existing venues, making them more sustainable.
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At the head of the march, about 50 people carried stylized cardboard trees to represent the larch trees that they said were felled to build a new bobsleigh track in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
“Centennial trees, survivors of two wars… sacrificed for 90 seconds of competition on a bobsleigh track that cost 124 million (euros)”, said another banner.
