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Governments have faced the fury of civilians who refused to submit to newly introduced coronavirus rules. In the Italian city of Turin, demonstrators took to smashing windows and using smoke bombs, as well as throwing bottles at police officers.

In Naples on Friday protesters clashed with police in a demonstration against a 11pm to 5am curfew.

Experts warned poorer southern regions will be the worst-affected by the new measures.

Vincenzo Provenzano, an economics professor at the University of Palermo, said: “These new restrictions risk widening the gap between the north and south.

“Put yourself in the shoes of someone living in the south: as the government closes restaurants that are fundamental for the south’s economy, that same government keeps factories open, which not only are a source of outbreaks and circulation of the virus, but these same factories are located primarily in the north.

“This is how the decree is perceived as an injustice by people living in the south.”

Spanish protesters in Barcelona took to the streets to denounce the introduction of a second state of emergency for at least six months.

In Prague, police officers resorted to tear gas and water cannons to break up the protests.

Paris and Marseille also saw protests after a state of emergency was declared countrywide in France.

In an article for the Daily Mail, journalist and historian Leo McKinstry noted the increasing discontent of British citizens with the coronavirus restrictions introduced by the Government.

He wrote: “Anti-lockdown demonstrations are a regular weekend occurrence in central London, while the willingness of normally law-abiding citizens to comply with ever-more complex regulations is beginning to fray.

“This week even the BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire admitted that if the rule of six were still in place by Christmas, she would ignore it.

“She later backtracked from this stance, but her initial statement reflected an increasingly widespread disenchantment with the current rules.

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“According to the latest polls, only 39 percent of the public approve of the No 10’s Covid policy.

“Even Tory MPs seem to have had enough, with a number of those in northern seats now on the verge of open rebellion against the Government’s perceived lack of a coherent exit strategy from the new Covid lockdowns being imposed on them with devastating economic impact.”

Mr McKinstry also pointed out the lack of clarity and effectiveness when outlining the rules.

He wrote: “It appears to me that we have ended up in the worst of all worlds, governed by rules that are both draconian and ineffective.

“A central part of the problem is that the public’s faith in officialdom has been badly eroded, largely due to the gross hypocrisy of those who devised Britain’s restrictions.

“After all, it is impossible to maintain national cohesion when there is one law for the hard-pressed citizenry, another for the privileged elite.

“Too many of the rule-makers have turned out to be rule-breakers, refusing to tolerate the same sacrifices that they so piously demanded of others.

“The most egregious purveyor of such double-standards was undoubtedly Downing Street’s chief strategist Dominic Cummings, whose notorious trip by car to Barnard Castle in County Durham after he had contracted Covid was a clear breach of the lockdown.”

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