PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of protesters inspired by frustrated high school students took to the streets across France on Saturday in a third consecutive weekend demonstrations against the cost of living and education.
Youth-led protests also took place elsewhere in Europeparticularly in Germany and Portugal.
Protests in France have been mostly peaceful, with fancy Halloween costumes to lighten the mood, but rallies in Paris and other cities have ended with clouds of tear gas and scattered fires set by small groups on the sidelines.
Around 70,000 police and gendarmes have been deployed across the country after French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez warned of a “very high risk” of unrest, especially as Halloween night falls. The Paris marches were redirected to the outskirts of the capital to protect shops, government buildings and tourist areas in the city center.
The French government estimates that 320,000 people demonstrated across the country on Saturday, fewer than in previous protests but still a significant turnout. Mass protests on October 17, which degenerated into some of the worst riots France has seen in years, attracted 550,000 people across France, and those on October 24 attracted 410,000, according to government estimates. Organizers’ participation estimates are higher.
French authorities reported more than 560 arrests across the country as of Saturday evening. Police arrested thousands of people following the riots and looting which marred the marches of the previous two Saturdays.
The protesters have various grievances
During the big Paris march, each group carried its own banner: high school students, climate activists and people angry at the cost of living.
Corentin Cabreux, a 21-year-old student, says he lives in a state-run student residence where “there are damp spots all along the bottom of my walls, whole sections peeling off, cockroaches everywhere, rats.”
An information technology worker protested in solidarity with students and her mother, who is struggling to get a minimum wage job. A gray-haired woman carried a sign reading “Old people are fed up too.”
The Halloween costumes reflected the mood. Cléo Farenc, a 30-year-old gallery owner, came dressed as a decapitated Marie-Antoinette.
“It’s about embodying a figure of power who has been overthrown by the people,” she said. “It’s a very strong symbol in French culture.”
The rallies in France were started last month by high school students protesting neglected buildings, teacher shortages and a university admissions system seen as unfair for disadvantaged students. Unions and others are angry at the president’s leadership Emmanuel Macron joined with various requests.
On Saturday, crowds flocked to the Boulevards des Maréchaux, avenues which surround the outskirts of Paris, in a joyful march for hours. Techno music blared from the speakers and some demonstrators broke into a party. A police helicopter flew overhead as the sun slowly set over the city.
Later, clashes broke out near the Porte de Charenton, where the march ended. Protesters threw glass bottles and fireworks at police. Officers responded with volleys of stun grenades and tear gas. Explosions echoed through the streets and smoke filled the air as dusk fell.
Many peaceful demonstrators turned around, coughing, their eyes streaming with tears, and left the procession, some dispersing into the nearby Bois de Vincennes, one of Paris’s largest parks.
Police impose curfew and other measures
Although the vast majority of protesters have been peaceful, groups of troublemakers regularly target police with fireworks and projectiles. Police use tear gas, cluster grenades, water cannons and other tactics that have resulted in serious injuries.
Parisian police banned access to Place de la République and Les Halles, areas popular with young people, from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Unaccompanied minors are subject to a separate 9 p.m. curfew around the Champs-Élysées. A Paris court on Wednesday suspended a curfew imposed on minors, considering it to be a serious and illegal attack on freedom of movement.
Protests took place in Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands
In Germany, a youth initiative called “Gen Z regelt” – roughly “Generation Z Got It” – rallied in more than 30 cities “for education, health, climate protection and affordable living”, and against any return to military conscription. Organizers said tens of thousands of people took part in protests across the country, but official figures were not immediately available.
In Berlin, young demonstrators also gathered on Saturday afternoon at the Brandenburg Gate to demand more investment in education and housing.
“We demand that more money be invested in social services and education, as well as in climate protection, in short, in our future, because we are the ones who will be affected by this situation for the longest and will have to live with it,” said high school student Lara Breitenbach.
Janelle Schulz, another high school student from Berlin, also said authorities needed to invest more money in education.
“In my school, the ceiling is collapsing due to water damage, nothing is being done, we lack teachers, the toilets are broken,” she says.
Later on Saturday, police broke up a protest march in the western city of Cologne after demonstrators used pyrotechnics, threw stones at them and covered their faces despite the ban. Police also used water cannons to disperse protesters.
In the northern city of Hamburg, some protesters also fired pyrotechnics at police and set barricades on fire. Police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse crowds in Hamburg. In Frankfurt, protesters hit police with stones, injuring several officers, one seriously, police said.
Elsewhere in Europe, people also protested against the housing crisis and for a better future.
Thousands of demonstrators, including families with young children, converged on downtown Lisbon to peacefully protest Portugal’s housing crisis, holding signs reading “Houses or fire” and “We are not afraid.” Others in the crowd held up small cardboard houses while a few dressed up for Halloween.
In The Hague, Netherlands, there was a heavy police presence in and around the city center shopping area on Saturday afternoon after calls to protest online and fears of riots and looting. However, no major disturbances were noted by mid-afternoon. Many stores in the city were closed as a precautionary measure.
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Kirsten Grieshaber reported from Berlin. Angela Charlton and Thomas Adamson in Paris; Kerstin Sopke and Geir Moulson in Berlin; Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands; and Helena Alves in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.
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