Credit, Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
Shops were looted in the center of Frankfurt on Saturday night (31/10), amid clashes in German cities during protests against the high cost of living.
In addition to Frankfurt, Germany's financial center, episodes of violence were recorded in Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg. Police said they used water jets to disperse protesters who were attacking emergency workers with fireworks, rocks and bottles.
Thousands of people took part in largely peaceful demonstrations earlier in the day. They were organized by the Gen Z regelt movement ("generation Z takes control", in free translation). The protests were motivated by the lack of investment in schools, the high cost of living, cuts in public spending and military service.
The protests in Germany follow similar youth-led mass demonstrations in France, where more than 320,000 people also took to the streets on Saturday.
On Sunday, Germany's Interior Minister, Alexander Dobrindt, told the Bild newspaper that the police managed to prevent, during the night, episodes of violence like those recorded in Paris in recent weeks. He also advocated "harsh punishments" for protesters involved in rioting and looting.
During the early hours of the morning, a large section of Frankfurt's main shopping street was cordoned off by police. A corporation spokesperson stated that many people were arrested in the city.
Authorities in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin estimated the number of protesters at up to 18,000 — about half of what organizers predicted on their website. The German press, however, reported that tens of thousands of people protested in cities across the country on Saturday.
Gen Z regelt movement spokeswoman Lina Friedrich said the demonstrations were aimed at "fighting for peace and freedom, not war and coercion."
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"For us, the most important thing is to improve support for the health and education systems. We are against compulsory military service and defend a fairer distribution of burdens," he stated.
Credit, Reuters
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On Saturday night, Frankfurt police reported that "violent riots" were taking place in the city center and that special units had been mobilized.
According to police, the windows of several stores were broken and Molotov cocktails were thrown at emergency workers.
Authorities also reported that the window of a gun store was destroyed and that two weapons were seized after the arrest of a suspect. Other stores were broken into, and products such as sneakers were stolen.
Roman Poseck, interior minister for the state of Hesse, whose largest city is Frankfurt, said that "around 100 clearly identified left-wing extremists" had infiltrated the protest in the city. He added that it was "shameful" the way the demonstrations ended.
"We all have those images of France in our minds: looting, burning houses, burning police cars and attacks on police officers... France should not be considered a model in this sense."
Police reported that the situation calmed down overnight from Saturday to Sunday.
Similar episodes were recorded in other German cities, following demonstrations that, for the most part, passed peacefully.
In Cologne, police reported that officers were attacked near the main railway station, with bottles being thrown and even a bicycle thrown at them.
Cologne police chief Johannes Hermanns said it was "deeply regrettable that groups of young people who wanted to protest peacefully for their own future were infiltrated by extremists who only had violence in mind."
In Berlin, a smaller demonstration held at night, following larger protests during the day, left 27 police officers injured and resulted in the temporary detention of up to 56 people, according to local police.
In Hamburg, people dressed in black set off fireworks and set barricades on fire. Public broadcaster NDR reported that 120 people were arrested.
The protests in Germany took place on the same day as other large demonstrations in different parts of Europe.
In France, more than 320,000 people participated in the third consecutive weekend of mostly peaceful protests in cities across the country. The protesters demanded measures against the high cost of living and the precariousness of public services, especially in the area of education.
Thousands of police officers were deployed across the country, and agents fired tear gas at protesters in some cities.
More than 770 people were arrested during Saturday's demonstrations in France, about half the number recorded during the previous week's protests, according to the French Interior Ministry.
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French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said a police officer was injured after being hit by a Molotov cocktail. French prosecutors later opened an attempted murder investigation to investigate the case.
Paris police reported that hundreds of protesters involved in riots attacked security forces with thrown objects.
The organizers of the protests in France, the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) movement, said dozens of protesters were seriously injured during recent demonstrations across the country, many of them hit by "grenades".
France suspended the use of a type of stun grenade during the repression of student protests in early October, after a 15-year-old teenager had his hand amputated by the explosion of one of these devices. However, French newspaper Le Monde reported that police continued to use another model of grenade in subsequent demonstrations.
There were also protests in Italy, with clashes between police and protesters in Rome and Turin.
In Portugal, police began removing a new tent camp set up after thousands of people marched against a rent bill. Protesters argue that the proposal could worsen the housing crisis in the country, where property prices have more than doubled in the last decade.
Recently, protesters, mostly young people, took to the streets in several European countries, such as France, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Serbia and Albania.
Although specific demands vary from country to country, protests have mainly focused on issues related to the cost of living, such as access to housing, the quality of education and cuts to public services.
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