Youth Protests in France and Germany Turn Violent: 320,000 March in France, 565 Arrested
PARIS and FRANKFURT, Germany — Youth-led cost-of-living protests in France and Germany were mostly peaceful during the day on Saturday, October 31, but turned into clashes with police after dark in several cities, with arrests across France rising to 565 by late Saturday and shops looted in central Frankfurt.
France's Interior Ministry said about 320,000 people took part in about 150 demonstrations nationwide, including 70,000 in Paris, down from about 410,000 the previous weekend. It was the third weekend in a row of such protests, driven by underfunded schools and rising living costs. Paris police said a hardcore of several hundred masked people attacked officers with projectiles, and police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse crowds; four officers and one gendarme were reported injured in Paris. An earlier count put arrests at about 290; the late-Saturday update was 565.
In Germany, the youth campaign group Gen Z regelt ("Gen Z takes charge") organised marches in dozens of cities, calling for greater investment in education, lower living costs and opposition to the reintroduction of mandatory registration of young people for military service. Police in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin counted a combined turnout of up to 18,000, roughly half the figure published by organisers. After dark, police in Cologne fired water cannon after officers were targeted with fireworks, and police in Berlin used pepper spray in some places. In Frankfurt, shop windows on the Zeil shopping street were smashed and stores looted, including a gun shop from which two weapons were taken; police said the weapons were recovered at the scene and one person was arrested, and Frankfurt police said arrests there rose from 30 around midnight to 100. Roman Poseck, interior minister of the state of Hesse, said around 100 clearly identified left-wing extremists had joined the demonstration.
Reports said French student protesters have vowed to stage new blockades at high schools, and the protests were continuing.
Sources: French Interior Ministry figures and German police statements, as reported by the BBC, DW, AFP and Reuters.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：巴黎街头抗议人群（资料图）。来源：Wikimedia Commons（Jules*，CC BY-SA 4.0）
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