By Fatma Younis
Street protests sweeping Europe are expected to spread to Germany and reignite in France on Saturday, with police mobilised to prevent potential looting and rioting on the fringes of what organisers hope will be peaceful rallies. Weeks of sometimes violent student demonstrations have already rocked Italy, Spain, Portugal, Albania and France.
Germany: Gen Z regelt calls for protests in 30 cities
A loose alliance of groups called Gen Z regelt (Gen Z is sorting it) has called for supporters to turn out in more than 30 German cities demanding more spending on schools, climate protection and housing, and opposing any return to mandatory military service. About 10,000 protesters, mainly pupils, students and their parents, are expected at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Saturday afternoon, with large rallies also planned in Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt and Hamburg. By Friday, more than 160,000 people had registered on the initiative's website saying they planned to attend.
Berlin's police chief, Barbara Slowik Meisel, said she would deploy an additional 1,500 officers in the capital, though she had little reason to fear attacks on people or property. "We have no concrete evidence of any coordinated looting operations being planned," she said. The federal pupils' conference has distanced itself from Saturday's demonstrations, citing an "unclear" organisational structure, and plans a separate protest on 20 November focused on declining school performance.
Political reactions have been mixed. Alexander Throm of the ruling conservative CDU parliamentary group wrote that "scenes like those in France must be prevented at all costs." Green party co-leader Felix Banaszak cautioned against placing youth protests under general suspicion, warning that rhetoric seeking to criminalise them pre-emptively may drive people towards radicalisation.
France: High risk of violence, massive police deployment
In France, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Saturday looked like "a very high risk" day, announcing that 70,000 police and gendarmes, including elite units, would be deployed to quell violence on the sidelines of the new wave of protests. Nuñez said radical groups had called on social media for violent Halloween gatherings, with the biggest threat likely after mainstream cost-of-living demonstrations end. Authorities would "tolerate zero excesses" and promised an "extremely firm" security response.
Measures to protect shops introduced last weekend will be reinforced. While peaceful demonstrations will be authorised, most will not be permitted in city centres where there is a risk of public disorder. Two separate marches planned by unions and gilets jaunes through central Paris have been banned; police authorised a single march in the far south-east, which both sets of organisers are challenging. The interior ministry said 410,000 people marched last Saturday, when a strong police presence mostly prevented a repeat of the widespread violence and looting that swept French cities on 17 October.
Unions and the gilets jaunes movement protesting over low wages, the cost of living and deteriorating public services have joined school and university students calling for better learning conditions, with a nationwide strike called for 5 November. Student leaders said government measures – including replacing a university admissions platform and providing loans for school renovations – did not go far enough.
