10,000 Marched on Milan's Olympic Village Last Week — the Fallout Is Still Unfolding

One week ago today, an estimated 10,000 people marched through Milan in one of the largest demonstrations against an Olympic host city in recent memory, protesting what activists call the unsustainable economic and environmental cost of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games .

The demonstration on Saturday, February 7 was organized by a coalition calling itself the Unsustainable Olympics Committee, which drew grassroots unions, housing-rights groups, environmental activists and student organizations from across northern Italy . Demonstrators carried cardboard cutouts representing trees felled to construct a new bobsled run in Cortina and held banners reading "Let's take back the cities and free the mountains" .

The march itself remained largely peaceful. But after the main crowd dispersed that evening, a breakaway group of roughly 100 hooded protesters threw firecrackers, smoke bombs and bottles at police near the Olympic Village in the Porta Romana district . Officers in riot gear responded with water cannon and tear gas, and six people were detained, according to police sources cited by Reuters . None of the projectiles reached the athletes' housing, which was secured behind a large police cordon .

The following day, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the violence, calling the protesters "enemies of Italy and Italians" in a social media post that featured US media coverage of the clashes . Her response drew sharp criticism from civil liberties organizations and opposition lawmakers, who accused the government of conflating legitimate dissent with criminality and fostering what they described as an "authoritarian security drift."

The Milan protest came one week after a rally by hard-left groups in Turin on February 1 had turned significantly more violent, injuring more than 100 police officers and resulting in nearly 30 arrests, according to an interior ministry tally . Italian authorities had subsequently tightened security across Milan, deploying roughly 6,000 personnel at Olympic sites for the duration of the Games .

On the same day as the Milan march last Saturday, Italian authorities separately began investigating three incidents of damage to rail infrastructure in the Bologna area, including the discovery of a rudimentary explosive device on a railway switch . Transport Minister Matteo Salvini raised fears of a "premeditated attack," though no direct link to the protest movement has been established.

In the week since the demonstration, the underlying grievances have not subsided. Property prices around Porta Romana, where the Olympic Village is located, have soared to more than triple the national average, according to Italian real estate data. Activists argue the Olympics have accelerated a gentrification wave that was already pricing working-class residents out of Italy's financial capital — a pattern familiar from previous host cities.

The environmental objections center on the construction of a new sliding sports venue in Cortina d'Ampezzo. The project required clearing approximately 20,000 square meters of larch forest and has seen its budget balloon from an initial estimate of €14 million to more than €85 million in Veneto Region funding. The facility will operate only four months per year, raising questions about the long-term viability of the investment.

The organizing committee's original 2019 bid estimated total costs at around €1.5 billion. Independent analyses now place the total economic footprint between €3.4 billion and €4 billion. Italian officials counter that the Games are projected to generate €5.3 billion in economic value, including €2.3 billion in tourism spending — figures that skeptics note rely on multiplier assumptions that have proven optimistic at previous Olympics.

Defenders of the Games point to tangible infrastructure benefits. The Olympic Village is slated for conversion into student housing after the closing ceremony on February 22. Andrea Varnier, CEO of the Milano Cortina organizing committee, has repeatedly defended the economic projections and noted that construction created thousands of jobs. Supporters argue that upgraded transport links will serve Milan for decades.

The political dimension has added layers of complexity. US Vice President JD Vance's attendance at the opening ceremony on February 6 — where he was met with a mix of boos and applause — and the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at the Games drew additional protest activity from immigration-rights activists and pro-Palestine networks .

Writing from Milan last Thursday, a Guardian columnist described the city as feeling "less like a city than an open-air shopping mall," noting that public spaces from Piazza del Duomo to the Sforzesco Castle had been appropriated by corporate pavilions. The writer drew an unfavorable comparison with Turin's 2006 Winter Olympics, which observers on both sides of the political spectrum remember as more organically integrated into the host city's cultural fabric.

Meanwhile, the legal backdrop remains unsettled. Last November, a Milan court raised constitutional concerns about a government decree critics dubbed the "Save the Olympics" law, which exempted the Milano Cortina Foundation from certain public-law oversight. Opponents argue the decree was designed to shield organizers from corruption investigations that began when the Guardia di Finanza raided the foundation's offices in May 2024.

With the Games entering their final week, further demonstrations are expected. Whether the protest movement remains a sideshow or grows into a sustained political challenge for Meloni's government will likely depend on how Italian authorities balance security enforcement with the right to protest at one of Europe's most heavily policed sporting events.