Demonstrations by young people in several European countries, calling for better education and more affordable living conditions, were accompanied by violence, clashes with law enforcement, looting and property damage.
Protests took place in France, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal and Albania. More than 770 people were arrested in France. In Frankfurt, Germany, more than 100 police officers were injured during unrest.
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In Germany, more than 100,000 people marched on Saturday in over 30 cities under the slogan “Gen Z regelt” (Generation Z will sort things out themselves). Protesters called for changes to the education system and a lower cost of living.
In Frankfurt, masked individuals damaged 17 shops and looted five of them. Hesse Interior Minister Roman Poseck said that hard objects, including Molotov cocktails, were also thrown during the unrest.
In France, around 320,000 people protested on Saturday in Paris, Marseille, Grenoble, Bordeaux, Lyon and Toulouse. The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into attempted murder of persons exercising public authority after incendiary devices were thrown at a group of around 15 gendarmes and police officers.
The situation there was calmer than on October 17, when 2,600 people were arrested and as many as 3,000 shops were looted in one of the worst nights of urban unrest in France’s recent history.
In Albania, protesters called for Prime Minister Edi Rama to step down, citing corruption allegations. At the end of the rally, young people clashed with police, threw stones and Molotov cocktails, and set trash bins on fire.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the protests left 350 people injured, including 200 police officers, while 269 minors were arrested.
In Portugal, police intervened to disperse protest camps. In Lisbon, protesters were forcibly removed from Rossio Square after a march against the housing crisis, while authorities also dismantled a camp in Porto.
Demonstrators are calling for the cancellation of a bill that would make it easier to evict tenants and remove rent restrictions for new contracts.
In Switzerland, unauthorized protests in Zurich and Basel ended in clashes. Security forces used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets, while protesters threw stones, bottles and fireworks at police.
Shops, vehicles and bicycles were damaged during the incidents, and clashes were also reported in Geneva.
