Meet the Leftist radicals taking on Meloni

In recent months, the Turin suburb of Vanchiglia has begun to look like Belfast at the height of the Troubles. Pairs of Carabinieri riot vans are top-and-tailed on a dozen corners. There’s not a bar without a few cops either inside or out. And, to an extent, this is nothing new. Over the centuries, Turin has always appealed to radicals — and, in turn, witnessed repression. With the snowy Alps so close, the city attracted outlaws, and Jewish and Protestant refugees, who had a fighting chance to flee to France or Switzerland if the Dukes of Savoy began a hunt for scapegoats. It’s also where Antonio Gramsci studied and then taught; where the Italian resistance fought the Nazis; and where, in the Seventies, unions and far-Left radicals, in groups with names like Lotta Continua and Avanguardia