Youth and housing protests across Europe: 54 arrested after Frankfurt violence, Portuguese police clear housing camps, and 20 November emerges as a shared protest date

Protests by young people and housing campaigners across Europe on Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November led to arrests in Germany, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland, according to police and interior ministries, while groups in several countries have announced further action, several of them for 20 November. This report is based on figures available as of 08:20 GMT on Monday 2 November.

What the protests are about, according to sources

The stated aims differ by country. In Portugal, protesters want the government to drop plans to ease evictions and remove rent caps on new leases, AFP reported; Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has acknowledged that property prices have doubled in a decade but blames previous governments for not building enough homes, AFP said. In Germany, the “Gen Z regelt” initiative calls for more money for schools, measures against rising living costs, social justice and climate protection, and opposes conscription, Deutschlandfunk reported. In Italy, the USB union describes its campaign as against the cost of living and rearmament and for higher wages and pensions. In France, student unions demand €10 billion for education and the scrapping of the Parcoursup admissions platform, franceinfo reported. Al Jazeera wrote that the protests reflect “growing anger over housing costs across Europe”.

Germany

“Gen Z regelt” called demonstrations in more than 30 German cities on Saturday. The initiative said about 120,000 people took part nationwide, well below the more than 182,000 who had signed up online, tagesschau reported. In Berlin, police said about 5,000 people gathered at the Brandenburg Gate, while the organisers said 10,000. Police described that rally as “almost free of disturbances”.

Violence broke out in the evening in some cities, above all in Frankfurt. Hesse Interior Minister Roman Poseck said at a press conference on Sunday that 54 people aged 13 to 29 had been arrested and that a special investigation unit had been set up. He said up to 1,300 police officers were deployed and more than 100 were injured, one of them seriously after being hit in the face by a thrown stone. Poseck said 17 shops were damaged and five looted, and that a gun shop was also attacked; police said they recovered two weapons from the shop. He estimated that 1,000 to 1,500 people prepared to use violence were involved and named “violent left-wing extremists” and young people, mainly with a migration background, as the groups responsible, tagesschau and n-tv reported.

An ARD reporter said the attackers were probably not participants in the demonstration marches, and the organisers had called for a protest without violence, tagesschau reported. Cologne police chief Johannes Hermanns said young people who wanted to protest peacefully had been “infiltrated by extremists”. In Berlin, police said 27 officers were slightly injured in disturbances after the rally.

Poseck told ARD’s Tagesthemen that it first had to be seen whether the events planned for 20 November could take place at all, and said the people running the assemblies “do not have them under control”. Hesse is weighing a ban on the 20 November protest, n-tv reported. “Gen Z regelt” said its protests would continue and that it is looking at taking part in Europe-wide protests on 20 November; a separate alliance is calling an “International Youth Strike Day” on that date, n-tv said.

Portugal

Riot police with dogs moved into the protest camps in Lisbon’s Rossio Square and Porto’s Dom João I Square at about 04:30 GMT on Sunday, after the camps were set up following Saturday’s marches, AFP and Al Jazeera reported. Police said six people were arrested in Lisbon and seven in Porto for refusing orders to disperse, and that 13 officers were injured, eight of them taken to hospital. Police said 69 tents were seized in Lisbon and 30 in Porto and described the operation as carried out “with rigour, balance and respect for citizens’ rights”.

The activist group Acampada Lisboa said more than 30 protesters were injured, 10 of whom needed hospital treatment; the Porto camp’s organisers reported 39 injured, Expresso reported. A lawyer for the protesters, Ricardo Sá Fernandes, said he would file a criminal complaint against the interior minister and the national police chief, AFP reported.

President António José Seguro asked for “all the detail” on the operations and spoke with the prime minister and the ombudsman, and later with the mayors of Lisbon and Porto, Expresso and RTP reported. His office asked its civil household to contact camp representatives and said a meeting could follow. On Sunday evening thousands of people returned to Rossio for a people’s assembly, which ended at about 19:00 GMT, RTP reported; Diário de Notícias estimated about 5,000 people in the square at 19:00 and said Porto’s square was also full.

Italy

Activists’ tents on Rome’s Via dei Fori Imperiali, set up on 30 October after a USB general strike that the organisers said drew 100,000 people, were moved to the Colosseum on Sunday for a national assembly and then dismantled, Corriere della Sera and Il Messaggero reported. USB announced a national demonstration in Rome on 12 December under the slogan “Governo Meloni dimissioni” (“Meloni government, resign”), and a housing mobilisation on 9 November linked to a general strike on housing that it said has been called in Spain. It also backs an international student strike on 20 November and a demonstration on 25 November. Italy’s transport ministry strike register lists a full-day national general strike called by the CGIL union for 20 November across public and private sectors. Il Messaggero reported that student occupations of schools in Rome, including the Tasso and Mamiani high schools, are continuing.

For earlier coverage, see Italy: protests on 24 October.

Spain

Spain’s Interior Ministry said the Guardia Civil arrested in Picanya, Valencia, on Friday 30 October a 20-year-old it described as the alleged founder and main promoter of the “Blocus” movement in Spain. The ministry said he was linked to Telegram groups used to coordinate calls that it said were presented as student protests but aimed at looting and violence; it said possible offences include aggravated public disorder and criminal organisation. ABC reported that he is now in jail and that about a dozen people have been arrested in Spain in the investigation, four of them in Barcelona. A judge on Sunday ordered an 18-year-old held without bail over his alleged role in organising the 24 October Barcelona disturbances, in which 133 people were arrested, ABC and RTVE reported.

Catalan police said an operation in Barcelona on Saturday and overnight, with more than 500 Mossos d’Esquadra officers and city police, ended with three arrests, 1,440 people identified and 127 people reported, RTVE said. A 21-year-old who administered one of the coordination groups was separately arrested on Saturday in Cabrera d’Anoia, RTVE reported. Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni described the day as calm and credited the police deployment. For the 24 October events, see our earlier report.

Netherlands

Dutch police said 34 people were arrested in The Hague on Saturday after online calls linked to “Gen Z” and to looting of shops, most of them minors aged 15 to 18. Mayor Van Zanen issued an emergency order at about 14:10 GMT for the main shopping area, later extended to the Malieveld and the area around Central Station. Police said an officer was taken to hospital with possible hearing damage after illegal fireworks were thrown, and that the city was calm by about 18:00 GMT.

Switzerland

Police in Zurich and Basel dealt with unauthorised demonstrations on Saturday night, SRF reported. In Zurich, several hundred people built and set fire to barricades, a car was burned, and police were attacked with fireworks, stones and bottles; police used water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets. In Basel, about 150 people took part, barricades were burned and public transport was halted for a time. Zurich cantonal police arrested two Swiss men aged 19 and 21 who had sand-filled gloves and face coverings, swissinfo reported via Keystone-ATS. A youth strike against austerity and militarisation is still listed by its organisers for 20 November in Bern, with a permitted demonstration at 16:30 GMT.

France

The Interior Ministry said 779 people were arrested nationwide on 31 October; for the full figures see our latest report on France. As schools returned on Monday, Education Minister Édouard Geffray said “a few” high schools were disrupted and called the mobilisation “residual” so far, franceinfo reported. The student union Unef has called Tuesday 3 November a “black day” at universities with blockades nationwide, and the USL and Union étudiante have called blockades on 3 and 5 November. Almost all major unions, except CFE-CGC, have called a national strike on Thursday 5 November over wages, jobs and public services, Le Parisien reported.

20 November

Several of these movements have named the same date. “Gen Z regelt” and an alliance calling an “International Youth Strike Day” in Germany, Swiss youth strike organisers in Bern, USB’s international student strike in Italy and the CGIL’s general strike in Italy all point to 20 November, according to n-tv, the organisers’ websites and Italian sources. The banner in the photo above, seen at the Berlin demonstration, calls a school strike against conscription on that date.