Clashes have broken out between police and protesters near a rally by Italian election frontrunner Giorgia Meloni, police said, after she complained about the lack of law and order at her events. On Tuesday evening, riot officers charged a group of around 50 people trying to disrupt Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party rally in Palermo, Sicily, media reports said. Police said in a statement that “containment” measures were used on a group of demonstrators, saying an officer was hit by one protester. A demonstrator was also held after throwing a bottle at police, the statement said. Reports said they were released a few hours later. The Repubblica daily newspaper said one of its reporters was hurt in the clashes, which it documented in a video published online. The Sicilian parliamentary press association said other journalists were also pushed, adding that it “hopes these are only incidents and not the restoration of a climate that must belong only to history”.