Italy’s Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri announced May 13 that Equitalia, the private company that collects taxes, and Finmeccanica, an aerospace and defense conglomerate, may receive military protection after they were attacked by anarchists.

Cancellieri warned that the army may also need to protect Italy’s high-speed rail network.

The defense proposals came after gunmen shot Roberto Adinolfi, ceo of one of Finmeccanica’s subsidiaries, Ansaldo Nucleare, in the leg. The “Olga Cell” of fai (Informal Anarchist Federation) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was punishing “one of the many sorcerers of the atomic industry.”

Equitalia is regularly attacked. On May 12, anarchists threw two petrol bombs at one of its buildings.

With 30 percent youth unemployment and an unelected government, the anarchist movement should have little trouble recruiting.

The Interior Ministry said it has assigned bodyguards to 550 people. It’s increased security at 14,000 locations, and redeployed 4,200 military personnel already on duty in Italy.

The Trumpet has long forecast that the euro crisis would cause riots and unrest, which would in turn cause governments to adopt authoritarian measures.

“Social unrest and riots will eventually force Europeans to succumb to a strong united government of Europe, led ultimately not from Brussels, but from Berlin,” wrote Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry in 2009. For more information on how this will happen, see his article “Did the Holy Roman Empire Plan the Greek Crisis?”