Two arrests in Milan during first No Green Pass rally under Italy's new protest rules.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the prominent anti-vaxxer and nephew of former US president JFK, on Saturday addressed a No Green Pass protest in Milan where he slammed Italy's covid cert as an "instrument of surveillance".

Kennedy was welcomed as a hero by the several thousand people assembled in Piazza dell'Arco della Pace to demonstrate against the the Green Pass which shows that the holder has been vaccinated, tested negative or recovered from covid-19 and has been mandatory in the workplace since 15 October.

Encouraging "everybody in this crowd to go out and fight back to resist, resist, resist", Kennedy called on protesters to "reclaim our government, to reclaim our lives, to reclaim our liberty for our children, for our country and for all future generations."

• Italy clamps down on Green Pass protests

To cheers and applause Kennedy, leader of the Children's Health Defence organisation, said: "I will stand side by side with you and if I have to die for this I'm going to die with my boots on."

Speaking to reporters earlier in the day Kennedy said: "The Green Pass is not a public health innovation, it is an instrument of obedience and financial control, the same as the passbooks that were issued by the Third Reich."

• Italy bans covid Green Pass protests from city centres

The Milan rally was held under Italy's new restrictions aimed at curbing Green Pass protests and keeping them away from city centres and shopping streets in a bid to protect public health and business interests.

Later in the evening a group of No Green Pass protesters circumvented a barricade around Milan's central Piazza Duomo, leading to two arrests and 30 people identified by police.

There were protests in other Italian cities too, including in Turin, Naples and Rome where about 400 people gathered in the Circus Maximus. The Rome rally, described as a "flop" by Italian media, resulted in street closures and traffic chaos on Saturday evening.

Photo Il Giornale