Germany's Cost-of-Living Protests Turn Violent in Several Cities
Protests across Germany on Saturday, 31 October, turned violent in several cities, and shops in central Frankfurt were looted late in the evening. CBS News reported that masked rioters smashed storefronts and took goods from shops in the city.
The demonstrations were organised by the campaign group Gen Z regelt, a name that means roughly "Gen Z takes charge." The protests were over underfunding in schools, the high cost of living, public spending cuts and military service.
In Frankfurt, police reported violent riots in the city centre and deployed special units. Windows were smashed and Molotov cocktails, homemade firebombs, were thrown at emergency services. The windows of a gun shop were broken, and police seized two weapons after arresting a suspect. Other people broke into shops and stole trainers and other items. Hesse's interior minister, Roman Poseck, said around 100 clearly identified left-wing extremists had infiltrated the Frankfurt protest.
Violence also broke out in Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg. In each city, police used water cannon, vehicles that spray water at crowds, to disperse groups. Protesters in several places threw fireworks, stones and bottles at emergency workers. In Berlin, an evening demonstration left 27 police officers injured and led to as many as 56 people being detained temporarily. In Hamburg, people dressed in black set off fireworks and set barricades on fire, and 120 people were arrested. In Cologne, police officers were attacked near the main train station with thrown bottles and a launched bicycle.
Authorities in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin reported as many as 18,000 protesters in total, roughly half the number put forward by the organisers.
The same day, more than 320,000 people demonstrated in France over the high cost of living and poor public services, especially education, according to BBC News. Police made more than 500 arrests after clashes in Toulouse, Lyon and Marseille. Agence France-Presse reported that clashes also broke out in Paris and other French cities, and described the protests as the third weekend of demonstrations in October.
Cost-of-living protests have also taken place in Belgium, Italy and Portugal alongside the French demonstrations, according to Al Jazeera.
