Italy extends preventive detention to minors and criminalizes violent participation in protests

The Council of Ministers of Italy has reacted to the protests that have been shaking the country for days with the approval, this Tuesday, of a new “youth security” decree greatly questioned by the opposition by which, from now on, minors may be subject to the figure of preventive detention that until now only applied to adults, and creates the crime of “violent participation in demonstrations.”

Although the Italian Government had been trying for months to extend preventive detention to minors, “with today’s decree, the regulations come into force immediately,” Meloni announced to the Italian people during an appearance published on social networks. Thus, law enforcement agencies will be able to detain minors under 18 years of age in police stations for 12 hours, even if they have not committed any crime, as long as there is evidence that they represent a danger.

With the classification of the new crime, any person who “within a group of five or more people” begins to “throw stones, sticks, or anything that puts people in danger” will be exposed to penalties of up to “five years in prison and up to 20,000 euros in fines.”

Meloni has condensed these measures into a saying: “Whoever does it pays, and if not, let their parents pay” and, although he claims to understand the protesters’ complaints, their “inconveniences” cannot be “an alibi for violence,” which only fuels their aforementioned complaints and “does not represent a solution.”