France's Third Weekend of Unrest: What Europe's Youth Revolt Over Living Costs Tells Americans About Big Government
About 320,000 people marched across France on Saturday, by the Interior Ministry's count, and the rallies again ended in clashes with masked rioters and 511 arrests. Youth-led protests also spread in Germany. Here is what is driving the anger, why Paris cannot simply spend its way out, and what comes next.
By Clara Hughes
For the third weekend in a row, France took to the streets. About 320,000 people joined rallies around the country on Saturday, October 31, the French Interior Ministry said, including 70,000 in Paris, The Guardian reported. That was down from an estimated 410,000 a week earlier. Many marchers wore Halloween costumes. One protester in Lyon dressed as Marie Antoinette, carrying a sign that read "Give them brioche." The marches were largely peaceful. The evenings were not. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said police had faced an "extraordinary" level of violence from some rioters as rallies ended, and that a riot police officer in Paris had been hit by a Molotov cocktail, which he called an "attempted murder." Police made 511 arrests, according to The Guardian. In Paris, dozens of masked people dressed in black pried up paving stones with hammers and hurled them at police near the Porte de Charenton. Police fired tear gas in Lyon and used water cannon in Toulouse, The Guardian reported. Across the border in Germany, police used water cannon in Cologne after youth-led protests organized by