Hundreds of thousands of people took part in the France Halloween protests across France on Saturday, 31 October, in a third consecutive weekend of cost-of-living and education demonstrations, as the day’s largely peaceful marches gave way to clashes in Paris by nightfall. France’s Interior Ministry estimated that 320,000 people protested nationwide, including 70,000 in Paris, and said 296 people had been detained across the country by 6 p.m. local time.
About 70,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed nationwide for the Halloween demonstrations, which France’s Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez, had warned carried a “very high risk” of public disorder, especially after dark.
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- Turnout: 320,000 people protested nationwide on Saturday, including 70,000 in Paris, according to France’s Interior Ministry.
- Detentions: 296 people had been detained across France by 6 p.m. local time on Saturday.
- Security deployment: About 70,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed nationwide.
- Paris route: The main Paris march ran from Porte de Bagnolet to Porte de Charenton, on the capital’s edge, after marches were moved out of the city centre.
- Third weekend: Saturday was the third weekend of protests, after 550,000 people demonstrated on 17 October and 410,000 on 24 October, according to government estimates.
- Spread: Youth-led protests were also held in Germany on Saturday, with demonstrations reported in Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne and Munich.
- What comes next: A nationwide strike and mobilisation called by an inter-union coalition is planned for 5 November.
France Halloween protests turn violent at the Paris march’s end
The Paris march began peacefully. Thousands gathered at Porte de Bagnolet, on the eastern edge of the capital, behind a line of students who led the march hand in hand, while security agents from the CGT, one of France’s largest labour unions, kept watch at the front and police were massed on side streets.
For hours the crowd streamed along the Boulevards des Maréchaux, the ring of avenues skirting the edge of Paris, chanting and singing through megaphones. Techno music played from speakers, a painter working along the route drew cheers, and some marchers went trick-or-treating. A 21-year-old student, Corentin Cabreux, told the Associated Press he lived in a state-run student residence where “there are damp stains all along the bottom of my walls, whole sections peeling off, cockroaches everywhere, rats.”
Clashes broke out near Porte de Charenton, where the march ended. Protesters hurled glass bottles and fireworks at police, and officers responded with volleys of stun grenades and tear gas, the Associated Press reported. Many peaceful marchers turned back coughing, their eyes streaming with tears, and scattered into the nearby Bois de Vincennes park.
France’s Interior Ministry said “radical elements at the tail end of the processions” in several cities, including Bordeaux, Toulouse, Rennes, Lille, Nantes, Marseille and Lyon, had attempted to enter city centres “with the intent to cause damage and engage in looting”, and that police had intervened and thwarted those attempts. Police in Rennes said that while the main march there “proceeded calmly along the planned route”, several hundred violent individuals began attacking police after the protest ended, throwing projectiles and setting off fires. Tear gas was also used in Lyon as a demonstration arrived at Place Jean-Macé.
Earlier in the day, the Interior Ministry had described the situation as generally calm, with 27 arrests recorded by 2 p.m., compared with 217 at the same time during the 24 October mobilisation. More than 40 metro stations were closed in Paris, and tram traffic was disrupted.
Protests spread to Germany and across Europe
The protests that began in France have spread to Germany, where tens of thousands of people turned out on Saturday for demonstrations coinciding with Halloween, CNN reported. The new German youth-led movement, dubbed “Gen Z regelt” — roughly “Gen Z’s got this” — is protesting against the high cost of living, underfunded schools and universities, environmental concerns and a potential reintroduction of mandatory military service. Organisers said more than 180,000 people had signed up online.
While the protest in Berlin appeared peaceful, water cannons and riot police were deployed in Cologne and Hamburg. Police in Cologne said water cannons were used after some protesters set off fireworks during a march in the city centre, adding that their measures were “directed against troublemakers and violent individuals — not against peaceful participants”. In Hamburg, riot police responded after barriers were set on fire and emergency service workers were attacked. Young protesters also gathered at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, demanding more investment in education and housing.
Demonstrations were also reported in Italy, where police were on alert after clashes in Milan, Turin and Bologna, and in Spain, where police in Barcelona planned their highest-level alert after rioting there on 24 October led to about 130 arrests, mostly of minors. In The Hague in the Netherlands, police were out in force around the central shopping area, but there was little sign of protests by mid-afternoon.
Why people are marching
The French protests began in late September, led by high school students demanding improvements to deteriorating school buildings, teacher shortages and a lack of resources, as well as changes to a university admissions system seen as unfair to disadvantaged students. The movement has since grown to include labour unions, climate activists and others angry about the cost of living, with the Yellow Vests movement also taking to the streets.
Violence has plagued the protests in recent weeks. The Interior Ministry said on Friday that at least 1,193 police officers had been injured since the protests began, as of 29 October. The images of violence and looting from the 17 October protests are still haunting French officials: that day, more than 3,000 shops were attacked or looted, with some destroyed, and more than 2,700 people were arrested, CNN reported.
Asked about students injured during the protests, President Emmanuel Macron described the violence as a “collective failure”. “I think no high school student started pushing for their demands expecting to suffer such terrible consequences. And I don’t know a single police officer who signed up to find themselves caught up in such terrible and violent moments either,” he said.
Curfews, Halloween warnings and what happens next
Authorities imposed a series of restrictions for the weekend. Police barred people from entering Place de la République and Les Halles in Paris from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and unaccompanied minors faced a separate 9 p.m. curfew around the Champs-Élysées. A Paris court had earlier in the week suspended a previous curfew on minors as a serious and illegal infringement of freedom of movement.
Halloween added a new complication, with Nuñez warning of separate calls for gatherings across France from 8 p.m. local time “by radical far-left groups and radicalized Yellow Vests”, which he described as incitements to serious public disorder and said would be banned. Paris police warned on social media that concealing one’s face in public is punishable by a €150 fine, while carrying a weapon, even a fake one, can carry a sentence of up to three years in prison and a €45,000 fine.
Saturday’s demonstration comes ahead of 5 November, when a nationwide strike and mobilisation called by the inter-union coalition over rising living costs is planned. For more coverage from across the continent, see Watan News’ Europe news.
