Milan, one million euros in damage to shops after weekend of clashes

A weekend of tensions in Milan’s city centre has left shopkeepers in the area with a heavy economic bill. According to estimates released after the demonstrations, damages exceed one million euros in the city’s central area alone, a figure that has reopened the debate over the costs being borne by the sector.

The secretary general of Confcommercio Milano put the impact in the central area at over five hundred thousand euros, between direct damage and lost revenue: a figure also linked to the early closure of shops, which were forced to pull down their shutters as early as late afternoon during the days of tension.

On the public order front, the provisional tally of the demonstrations counts around sixty people detained, half of them minors, and at least 25 injured, none in serious condition. The figure on the presence of minors among those detained points to youth participation in the protests that goes beyond the mere account of the clashes, though no further details on their identity or individual circumstances emerge from the available material.

Ahead of next weekend, shopkeepers have chosen not to passively await a possible repeat. At least 25 businesses in the area behind the Duomo have decided to protect their shop windows with panels, a defensive measure designed to prevent further looting should the demonstrations recur.

The tally of economic damage and the significant number of minors involved in the episodes of tension confront the city with a problem that is now measured on several levels: that of security in the streets of the centre and that, more immediately pressing in the short term, of the economic resilience of the businesses operating there. The boarded-up shop windows ahead of next Saturday remain, for now, the most immediate response put in place by the sector.