Clashes in Italy over cuts in education

Clashes broke out in Rome's historic Piazza Navona yesterday when students throughout Italy occupied squares and blocked traffic to protest against a new law expected to cut spending on education and research.

The Rome demonstration was peaceful until a group of right-wingers wielding clubs and chains arrived and clashed with other students, witnesses said.

Tables and chairs from an outdoor cafe were hurled into the air, sending tourists running for cover as police in riot gear moved in to break up the melee.

About 15 students were detained, police said. Three students and one policeman were injured, they added.

The protests took place as the Italian Senate approved the law drawn up by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government but which the centre-left opposition has vowed to repeal with a national referendum.

"We are protesting because we have no future," said Francesco Marri, a university student protesting outside the Senate, which is next to Piazza Navona.

Demonstrations against the reforms have been swelling over the past two weeks across Italy.

The students say the changes will hinder their ability to get a good education.

The government says the law, which deals mostly with primary and secondary schools, will trim waste and put Italian schools on an equal footing with other European school systems.

The secondary pupils have been supported by university students and professors opposed to cuts in education and research in the 2009 national budget.

To underscore their discontent, some secondary school teachers and university professors held classes in the squares.

"Most of my students realise that they will have to go abroad, either to the United States or elsewhere in Europe, if they want to advance their careers," said Carlo Maria Bertoni, a physics professor.

Mr Bertoni, the department head of a university in northern Modena, held a lecture in geology in Piazza Navona in the shadow of Bernini's 17th century Fountain of the Four Rivers.

"This whole situation stinks," said Nella Converti, a high school student from the Analdi school in Rome's outskirts. "As soon as I graduate, I want to go to Spain to study - anywhere but here in Italy, which is mired in petty politics".

Medical students from the Sant' Andrea teaching hospital of Rome's University bicycled through Rome wearing their white coats and stethoscopes around their necks to protest against the cuts in spending on research.

Similar demonstrations were held up and down Italy, from Milan in the north, where students blocked traffic and occupied a train station, to Naples in the south, where they occupied the main square. Minor clashes were reported in Milan.