On Monday afternoon, 19 October, several shops in Milan’s Quadrilatero della Moda lowered their shutters for fear of fresh clashes and looting, after the damage of Saturday and Sunday. La Repubblica writes that this is a new alert, not that guerrilla violence had resumed. Monday’s closures are a precaution by traders, not a city-wide municipal ban.

On via Montenapoleone, Chanel, Hermès and Pomellato were among those that closed. On via Monti, Goyard put up a sign: given the demonstrations, it would stay shut. A police van was on via Manzoni. Some shops still open were watching who had closed and comparing notes. Not every window in the centre was down.

An Esselunga supermarket near piazza Fontana also closed, for a demonstration expected in the afternoon. In piazza Duomo, though, at the time of reports after 16:00, Repubblica did not see a crowd: access routes were guarded, a few young people who were checked had Italian ID, and talk of alternative targets — Montenapoleone or corso Buenos Aires — had not been borne out then.

Confcommercio Milano, through secretary-general Marco Barbieri, raised the weekend damage estimate from about half a million euros yesterday morning to about one million. He also spoke of image: hotels with worried tourists, stays cut short and dinner cancellations, “over 50%” in the affected area. Those are the association’s figures, not a court tally.

Mayor Giuseppe Sala visited wrecked shops in the morning with Confcommercio president Carlo Sangalli. In a note quoted by ANSA he said Saturday and Sunday’s scenes, against the police and public spaces, were unacceptable, and that his sense was the tension was not over. That is a political reading, not an announcement that looting would resume on Monday.

ANSA also notes a “Movimento 17 ottobre” calling on social media for mobilisation every Saturday at 15:00, “until this government falls”. It is an appeal on a new page, not a protest already held on Monday. Young people held over the weekend have been detained, not convicted.

Deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini made a brief walk through the Duomo, according to Repubblica, and was expected around 18:00 at a government-right gathering in piazza San Carlo. His presence does not mean the square filled. At the time of the reports the centre was more shut and guarded than in a new street fight.

Image: via Monte Napoleone, Milan, 2019, FlavMi, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The luxury street on an ordinary day, not Monday’s shutters.

Sources consulted: Milano, negozi in centro chiusi per timore di nuovi scontri e saccheggi. Forze dell’ordine schierate — la Repubblica; Paura per nuovi scontri a Milano, le boutique chiudono in anticipo: centro blindato — MilanoToday.