A third weekend of protests in France as youth-led rallies sweep Europe

By  TOM NOUVIAN and KIRSTEN GRIESHABER, PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of protesters inspired by frustrated high school students took to the streets across France on Saturday in a third consecutive weekend of demonstrations over living costs and education.

Youth-led protests were also held elsewhere in Europe, including in Germany and Portugal.

France’s protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, with whimsical Halloween costumes lightening the mood, but gatherings in Paris and other cities ended in clouds of tear gas and scattered fires set by small groups on the margins.

About 70,000 police and gendarmes were deployed across the country after French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez warned of a “very high risk” of disorder, especially after dark on Halloween. Paris marches were rerouted to the capital’s edge to protect stores, government buildings and touristed areas in the city center.

France’s government estimated that 320,000 people protested nationwide Saturday, fewer than in previous protests but still a significant turnout. Mass protests on Oct. 17 that deteriorated into some of France’s worst rioting in years drew 550,000 people around France, and demonstrations on Oct. 24 drew 410,000, according to government estimates. Organizers’ turnout estimates are higher.

Authorities in France reported more than 560 arrests nationwide by Saturday night. Police had arrested thousands of people following riots and looting that marred marches the previous two Saturdays.

Protesters have diverse grievances

In the main Paris march, each group carried its own banner: high school students, climate activists and people angry about the cost of living.

Corentin Cabreux, a 21-year-old student, said that he lives 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.”

An information technology worker protested in solidarity with the students and her mother, who was struggling with a minimum wage job. A gray-haired woman carried a sign reading ‘’The Old are Fed Up Too.’'

Halloween costumes reflected the mood. Cléo Farenc, a 30-year-old gallery assistant, came dressed as a beheaded Marie-Antoinette.

“It’s about embodying a figure of power who was brought down by the people,” she said. “It’s a very strong symbol in French culture.’'