PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of mostly young protesters took to the streets across France on Saturday in a third consecutive weekend of demonstrations over living costs and education.
About 70,000 police and gendarmes were deployed across the country, and Paris marches were rerouted to the capital’s edge. Youth-led demonstrations were also reported in Germany and Italy.
France's government estimated that 320,000 people protested nationwide Saturday,
fewer than in previous protests but still a significant turnout. Mass protests on Oct. 17 that deteriorated into some of France's worst rioting in years drew more than 500,000 people around France, and demonstrations on Oct. 24 drew 410,000, according to government estimates. Organizers’ turnout estimates are much higher.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez warned of a “very high risk” of disorder, especially after dark on Halloween. Police had arrested thousands of people following riots and looting that marred the largely peaceful protest marches the previous two Saturdays.
At Porte de Bagnolet, on the eastern edge of Paris, thousands gathered behind a line of students who led the march hand in hand. Security agents from the CGT, one of France’s largest labor unions, were keeping watch at the front of the gathering, while police were massed on side streets.
The Interior Ministry told reporters that of the 320,000 protesting Saturday, 70,000 people are estimated to have turned out for the main protest in Paris, which police moved outside the city center to reduce the risk of unrest around government buildings and tourist sites after a last-minute court battle.
The marchers’ grievances are diverse.
Each group carried its own banner: high school students, climate activists and people angry about the cost of living.
A few Halloween costumes stood out in the crowd, including a zombie Michael Jackson from “Thriller,” a pirate and a Spider-Man. Protesters waited calmly, chanting and singing through megaphones.
Corentin Cabreux, a 21-year-old student, said that he lives in a state-run student residence where “there are damp stains all along the bottom of my walls, whole sections peeling off, cockroaches everywhere, rats.”
He said that he hoped Saturday’s protest would be festive in honor of Halloween, to counter the image of violence that has attached itself to France’s protests.
The rallies started last month as a movement of high school students protesting neglected buildings, teacher shortages and a university admissions system seen as unfair to disadvantaged students. Labor unions and others angry at President Emmanuel Macron joined in with a variety of demands.
While the vast majority of protesters have been peaceful, groups of troublemakers routinely target police with fireworks and projectiles. Some protests have degenerated into rioting and looting — including unrest on Oct. 17 that appeared to take the government by surprise. Police have responded with tear gas, dispersion grenades, water cannons and other tactics that have resulted in severe injuries.
Macron said that Saturday's marches would stay out of city centers to protect shops. Police also barred people from entering Place de la Republique and Les Halles from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Unaccompanied minors face a separate 9 p.m. curfew around the Champs-Elysees. A Paris court on Wednesday suspended an earlier curfew on minors as a serious and illegal infringement of freedom of movement.
In Germany, a youth initiative called “Gen Z regelt” — roughly “Gen Z’s got this” — rallied in many cities “for education, health, climate protection and an affordable life,” and against any return of military conscription. Organizers said that more than 180,000 people had signed up online, but as of Saturday afternoon only several thousand marched in various cities across the country.
Young protesters also gathered at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate on Saturday afternoon, demanding more investments in education and housing.
"We call for more money to 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 the longest and who will have to live with it," high school student Lara Breitenbach said.
Janelle Schulz, another high school student from Berlin, also said that the authorities had to invest more money in education.
“At my school, the ceiling is collapsing because of water damage, nothing is being done about it, we have a shortage of teachers, the toilets are broken,” she said.
Some shops on the Kurfuerstendamm boulevard had boarded up their windows on Friday, although authorities said they were unaware of specific threats of violence. An additional 1,500 police officers were deployed to the German capital to quench possible riots.
In The Hague, Netherlands, there was a strong police presence in and around the downtown shopping area on Saturday afternoon after online appeals for protests, and fears of rioting and looting. However, there was little sign of protests and no major disturbances by midafternoon. Police frisked some groups of black-clad youngsters, and checked their identities, local media reported.
Many stores in the city were also boarded up as a precaution.
In Barcelona, Spain, regional police planned to activate their highest-level alert after an anonymous TikTok network called Blocus urged new gatherings. Rioting there on Oct. 24 led to about 130 arrests, mostly of minors.
Italian police were on alert after clashes in Milan, Turin and Bologna, and calls to protest circulated on TikTok in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Portugal.
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Kirsten Grieshaber reported from Berlin. Angela Charlton and Thomas Adamson in Paris; Kerstin Sopke and Geir Moulson in Berlin; and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.
