France braces for third week of protests

‘GEN Z’S GOT THIS: More youth-led rallies are sweeping the rest of Europe, such as Germany’s ‘Gen Z regelt,’ which is urging protests for education and an affordable life

France prepared yesterday for a third consecutive weekend of protests over living costs and education, deploying 70,000 police and gendarmes and pushing the Paris march to the capital’s edge as youth-led demonstrations spread across Europe.

French Minister of the Interior Laurent Nunez warned of a “very high risk” of disorder, especially after dark on Halloween.

Paris police banned union and Yellow Vest marches through the city center on Friday, ordering demonstrations to follow a single route along the capital’s outer boulevards, from Porte de Bagnolet to Porte de Charenton.

A protester holds a sign that reads “fair distribution of wealth” during a rally in Valenciennes, France, yesterday.

Photo: AFP

Unions and student groups challenged the restrictions in court.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said marches would stay out of city centers to protect shops.

Police also barred entry to the Place de la Republique and Les Halles, both hit by rioting and looting on Oct. 17, from 11pm to 6am on Saturday and Sunday nights.

Unaccompanied minors face a separate 9pm curfew around the Champs-Elysees.

A Paris court on Wednesday suspended an earlier curfew on minors as a serious and illegal infringement of freedom of movement.

The movement began with high-school students protesting school conditions and broadened into anger over living costs.

Authorities counted about 550,000 marchers on Oct. 17, when rioters looted hundreds of shops, and 410,000 on Saturday last week, when protests were largely peaceful, but police made more than 1,300 arrests.

In Germany, a youth initiative called “Gen Z regelt” — roughly “Gen Z’s got this” — urged protests in about 30 cities “for education, health, climate protection and an affordable life,” and against any return of military conscription. Organizers said more than 140,000 people signed up online.

Berlin police expect about 10,000 people at the Brandenburg Gate. Some shops on the Kurfuerstendamm boulevard boarded up windows.

In Barcelona, Spain, Catalan police planned their highest-level alert after an anonymous TikTok network called Blocus urged new gatherings. Rioting there on Saturday last week led to about 130 arrests, mostly of minors.

Italian police were on alert after clashes in Milan, Turin and Bologna, and calls to protest circulated on TikTok in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Portugal.