Europe's Saturday Protests: Where and Why People Took to the Streets
Hundreds of thousands of people protested across Europe on Saturday, with the largest demonstrations in France drawing around 410,000 participants and leading to nearly 1,000 arrests amid evening clashes with police. French protests in Paris and cities like Lyon, Bordeaux, and Marseille remained mostly peaceful during the day but escalated at night with tear gas, water cannons, and fires. In Italy, thousands demonstrated in Milan, Bologna, Turin, Naples, Florence, and Rome over living costs, fuel prices, and rearmament, with police using batons and tear gas in some cities. In Albania, student-led protests against alleged government corruption and poor education standards turned violent, with police using tear gas and rubber bullets. Smaller protests occurred in Brussels, Belgium, where demonstrators demanded better education funding and clashed with police.