France deploys 70,000 officers for third weekend of youth-led unrest
Paris police rerouted marches to the city edge, while similar demonstrations organized by Gen Z groups took hold in Germany, Spain, and Italy.
By Ibrahim Howard ·
France prepared for a third straight weekend of street protests on Saturday by deploying 70,000 police and gendarmes across the country.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez cited a "very high risk" of disorder, specifically warning about safety after dark on Halloween. Paris police banned union and yellow vest marches from the city center, forcing demonstrators to follow a single route along the outer boulevards from Porte de Bagnolet to Porte de Charenton. Union and student groups challenged these restrictions in court but lost in a final legal ruling.
President Emmanuel Macron stated on Monday that keeping marches out of city centers was necessary to protect local shops. Police also barred entry to Place de la République and Les Halles, areas that saw rioting and looting on Oct. 17. A Paris court suspended an earlier 9 p.m. curfew for unaccompanied minors around the Champs-Élysées on Wednesday, calling the measure a serious and illegal infringement of freedom of movement.
The movement started last month with high school students protesting school conditions before expanding into wider anger over living costs. Authorities counted approximately 550,000 protesters nationwide on Oct. 17, a night when rioters looted hundreds of shops. Last Saturday drew about 410,000 people to rallies that were largely peaceful, though police made more than 1,300 arrests.
In Germany, a youth initiative named Gen Z regelt urged protests in about 30 cities, citing education, health, climate protection, and affordable life costs. Organizers reported that more than 140,000 people had signed up online. Berlin police expected 10,000 people at the Brandenburg Gate, where some shops on the Kurfürstendamm boarded up windows despite authorities saying they knew of no specific threats of violence. Protests in Berlin were scheduled to begin in the early afternoon.
Catalan police in Barcelona planned to activate their highest-level alert after an anonymous TikTok network called Blocus urged new gatherings. Rioting in the Spanish city last Saturday led to about 130 arrests, mostly of minors. Italian police remained on alert following clashes in Milan, Turin, and Bologna, while calls to protest circulated on TikTok in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, and Portugal.
Source: CBC News
