Protests against high living costs turned violent across France over the weekend of 17 and 18 October, with riots and looting, and similar clashes were reported in parts of Italy. The movement began as a school students' protest but now also demands fairer pay, higher taxes on the rich and a better social security system. Curfews were imposed on Monday evening, 19 October, in several cities including Paris. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu told parliament that the police had been too static and not mobile enough, and he promised a massive deployment for Saturday, 24 October.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the response would be raised to a higher level, both in the number of officers and in how quickly they can react. Forces from the Sentinelle anti-terror unit are to take over part of the workload from the other police units. Nuñez said the authorities are first considering bans on unregistered demonstrations that could disturb public order, and even on registered ones whose organisers cannot convince police they will stay under control. Meanwhile the yellow vest movement, one of the organisers of Saturday's protests, has called for a "second act" on 24 October, according to its website, with demonstrations again planned in dozens of places.
The initiative Gen Z steht auf has called for protests in numerous German cities on 31 October, with the agenda reportedly covering education, affordable living and opposition to compulsory military service. Co-initiator Akram Selo told dpa that the demonstration is meant to be peaceful.
“We clearly distance ourselves from any kind of violence.”
Bild reported that posts on Instagram and TikTok promote the day under the name "Gen Z regelt das", with messages urging people to strike as young people had in France. Historian Hélène Miard-Delacroix told FOCUS online that young people's economic and social worries are similar across borders, so protests could reach Germany, though she finds escalation on the French scale hard to imagine.
Hesse's interior minister Roman Poseck (CDU) said the 31 October mobilisation was being exploited from the left spectrum.
“Our police will be strongly deployed and will act consistently.”
Poseck also stressed that no violence against people or property would be tolerated. Berlin police spokesperson Florian Nath said some people want to use the student protests for their own interests, and that police would check closely whether the protests were legitimate or whether people only wanted Halloween as a backdrop. Bavaria's interior minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) warned that extremist structures must be spotted early and stopped, saying the scenes in France were serious riots rather than school protests. The police union GdP in Berlin, through state chair Stephan Weh, described a large operation authorities were preparing for, citing fireworks commonly set off on Halloween night on German streets. A federal government spokesperson said on Monday, 19 October, that the government did not share a concern about the violence spreading to Germany. On Friday, 16 October, police at the edge of a demonstration at a Friedrichshain gymnasium identified a group of about 50 people who did not belong to the school. The pupils' protest remained peaceful, police said, but scuffles broke out in the other group and a female resident was injured.
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Police in Hesse and Berlin are preparing for protests on 31 October called by the initiative Gen Z steht auf, while Bavaria warns of riots like those in France.
AI text based on reports by Wirtschafts Woche, Focus, N-tv and other publishers. Published .