Italy's national strike called by main union disrupts transport and school services

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ROME (AP) — A national strike called on Friday by Italy’s largest trade union in protest against the government’s budget plans widely disrupted transportation, health and school services across the country.

The protest, which targets the 2026 budget bill proposed by the conservative government of Premier Giorgia Meloni, comes just two weeks after another general strike organized by smaller trade unions, with the same motivations.

The strike mainly hit railway transportation, with cancellations and delays registered for both long-distance and regional trains. Public schools across the country canceled classes, forcing students to stay home because of a lack of local public transportation in many cities.

The CGIL union listed the reasons for the strike in a statement, including demands for greater investments in healthcare, education and housing rights, along with measures to tackle workplace safety.

CGIL secretary-general Maurizio Landini, who led a rally in Florence on Friday morning, criticized the budget as “unfair, wrong and dangerous.” He said that the main social emergency is now represented by low wages, and that government measures don’t address that.

Tens of thousands of workers took to the streets on Friday as demonstrations and rallies supporting the strike took place from north to south.

When the protest was announced last month, Meloni and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini mocked the union for organizing the strike as usual on a Friday, suggesting that it was an excuse for a long weekend.

They also defended the government’s budget bill, saying it addresses the citizens’ needs for lower fiscal pressure and more financial help for families.

Italy’s national strike comes just a day after the one called by Portugal’s two main trade union confederations, which severely disrupted travel Thursday and forced the cancellation of many medical appointments and school classes.

The two labor groups representing close to a million Portuguese workers said that it could be the country’s biggest walkout in more than a decade as they contested the center-right government’s planned changes to employment laws.