The killing of a 22-year-old at Certosa station has reignited a bitter political argument about urban safety, gang violence. A key question: has Italy’s government has delivered on its law-and-order promises.
A 22-year-old man died in hospital on Wednesday after being stabbed at Milan’s Certosa station in an overnight attack. It has sharpened the political debate about security in Italy’s major urban centres.
The victim, an Italian of Ecuadorian heritage, was attacked by a group of young men on a platform at the station. His brother was also injured in the assault, though not seriously. Investigators are looking into whether the assailants, also said to be of South American origin, were members of a gang. The victim’s age was reported as 22 by Italian news agency ANSA, though some early reports cited 20.
Political reactions
The killing drew an immediate response from Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the right-wing Lega party. “More blood, more violence at a station at the hands of gangs of foreign thugs,” Salvini wrote on X. “This is unacceptable.” He called for the number of military personnel, law enforcement officers and FS Security staff operating on trains and in stations to be at least doubled, noting that more than 5,000 uniformed personnel are currently deployed daily for rail network security. “This presence must at least be doubled to stamp out the daily violence that has now become intolerable,” he wrote, adding a prayer for the victim and his family.
The response from the opposition was pointed. Former premier and Italia Viva leader Matteo Renzi used the killing to attack the government’s record directly. “Another murder in the station, this time at Milano Certosa,” he wrote. “Meloni and Piantedosi’s Italy is a less safe place than in the past. They pass a decree a week but meanwhile police and Carabinieri remain stuck in Albania and Meloni’s security is a slogan that only works for TikTok and Instagram.” The reference to Albania concerns law-enforcement officers stationed at Italy’s migrant processing centres there, a deployment critics argue diverts domestic policing resources.
Several other opposition politicians echoed the argument. That the government’s string of security decrees, and its sustained hardline rhetoric on crime and immigration, have not translated into measurable improvements in public safety.
Certosa is a busy interchange station in the Municipio 8 district of north-west Milan. The investigation is ongoing.
