France deployed 70,000 police and gendarmes Saturday ahead of a third consecutive weekend of protests over living costs and educational conditions, as youth-led demonstrations and labor grievances rippled across several European countries.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez warned of a very high risk of disorder, particularly following nightfall on Halloween. In response to previous unrest, Paris police barred union and yellow vest marches from the city center on Friday, restricting demonstrations to a single route along the capital’s outer boulevards running from Porte de Bagnolet to Porte de Charenton. President Emmanuel Macron defended the routing decision Monday, stating that marches would stay out of downtown districts to safeguard commercial properties.
Unions and student groups challenged the strict routing and curfew measures in court. Authorities also prohibited public entry to the Place de la République and Les Halles—locations affected by rioting and looting on Oct. 17—from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. over the weekend. A separate curfew targeting unaccompanied minors around the Champs-Élysées was ordered, though a Paris court suspended an earlier version of the youth curfew Wednesday, ruling it a serious and illegal infringement on freedom of movement.
The unrest originated with high school students protesting school conditions before expanding into broader anger over inflation and living expenses. National authorities recorded roughly 550,000 marchers on Oct. 17, an event marked by extensive looting of hundreds of shops, followed by 410,000 demonstrators the subsequent Saturday. While last week’s demonstrations remained largely peaceful, police executed more than 1,300 arrests.
The movement has since crossed national borders. In Germany, an organization known as “Gen Z regelt,” translated roughly as “Gen Z’s got this,” called for demonstrations in approximately 30 cities advocating for education, health care, climate protection, and affordable living while opposing any reinstatement of military conscription. Organizers reported that more than 140,000 individuals signed up online. Berlin law enforcement anticipated roughly 10,000 participants gathering at the Brandenburg Gate, prompting some merchants along the Kurfürstendamm boulevard to board up storefront windows, although officials stated they possessed no intelligence regarding specific violent threats.
Similar precautions unfolded across Southern and Western Europe. In Barcelona, Catalan police implemented their highest-level alert following calls for gatherings from an anonymous TikTok network operating under the name Blocus. Riots in Barcelona the previous Saturday resulted in approximately 130 arrests, predominantly involving minors. Meanwhile, Italian law enforcement maintained heightened vigilance following clashes in Milan, Turin, and Bologna, while digital mobilization efforts circulated via TikTok in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, and Portugal.
