Over two million people have begun a mass demonstration in Rome. The protest was originally called to focus opposition to plans by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to relax labour laws, but it was broadened into a protest against terrorism, after political extremists murdered one of the architects of the proposed reforms.
In November 1994, around one million demonstrators turned out in a demonstration to protest pension reforms, when conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was briefly in office for the first time.
"This is a unique and extraordinary demonstration," former leftwing prime minister Mr Massimo d'Alema said at the protest, calling it a "symbolic battle" for worker's rights.
The labour reforms Mr Berlusconi envisages would make it easier for companies to fire workers, and they have provoked strong protests among labour unions.
But the demonstration took on a different tone earlier this week, after a key man behind the reforms was assassinated in Bologna, in an attack claimed by the far left Red Brigades.
Mr Marco Biagi, an adviser to the government, was gunned down outside his home in northern Italy on Tuesday.
The Red Brigades, an urban guerrilla group behind a series of deadly attacks and kidnappings in the late 1970s and early 1980s, claimed responsibility for the assassination.
Demonstrators marched with banners such as "terrorism kills freedom" and "Don't touch Article 18", in reference to the clause in the labour law the prime minister wants to change.
AFP