Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in France to protest against the rising cost of living and deteriorating school conditions as youth-led protests spread to Italy and Germany.
With six months to go until the presidential election, France’s largest cities including Paris, Lyon and Marseille saw marches for a third consecutive Saturday.
The French interior ministry said 320,000 people took to the streets across the country on Saturday in what were largely peaceful protests. Student unions put the figure at half a million, including 200,000 in Paris.
Arrests were significantly lower than during previous demonstrations, although tensions and clashes emerged in Marseille, Paris and Lyon as marches dispersed.
French authorities described the situation nationwide as “generally calm” in the early afternoon. France deployed 70,000 police officers to contain what it feared would be another day of unrest.
Many protesters wore Halloween costumes despite French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez warning that face coverings could result in fines of €150.
Other European cities including Rome, Milan, Berlin and Frankfurt also experienced a day of youth-led protests against the cost of living and, in Germany, military spending.
The protests in over 30 German cities were ignited by a youth-led initiative called Gen Z regelt (Gen Z gets things done) and remained largely peaceful despite the police cancelling a planned march in Cologne after some participants wore face coverings and set off smoke bombs.
In Italy, the police carried out 60 searches across 23 cities targeting people suspected of inciting violence a mass demonstrations on Friday, according to news agency ANSA.