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Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez 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 Friday, ordering demonstrations to follow a single
route along the capital’s outer boulevards, from Porte de
Bagnolet to Porte de Charenton. Unions and student groups
challenged the restrictions in court.
President Emmanuel Macron said Monday 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 11 p.m.
to 6 a.m. Saturday and Sunday nights.
Unaccompanied minors face a separate 9 p.m. 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 last Saturday,
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 some 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, although authorities said they were unaware of specific
threats of violence.
In Barcelona, Spain, Catalan police planned their highest-level
alert after an anonymous TikTok network called Blocus urged new
gatherings. Rioting there last Saturday 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.
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Associated Press writer Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.
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