Youth protests in more than 30 German cities: police use water cannon in Frankfurt and Cologne
According to organisers, nearly 180,000 people registered nationwide to join the rallies; in Frankfurt a demonstration was broken up over violence and several police officers were injured.
Youth protests were held in more than 30 cities across Germany on October 31. Participants protested against the socio-economic situation in the country and the government's policies.
The rallies were called by the youth initiative "Gen Z regelt" under the slogan "Our future is in our hands". The main demonstrations took place in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt and Cologne. According to the organisers, nearly 180,000 people nationwide had pledged to take part, with registrations in the four largest cities exceeding 50,000.
The initiative demanded that the CDU/CSU–SPD government halt cuts to education, social services, culture and health, take action against rising living costs, abandon plans for military conscription, stop the expansion of surveillance and take urgent steps to protect the climate.
According to police, turnout in Frankfurt peaked at about 8,000, while organisers put it at 9,000. At the rally in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, police reported up to 5,000 participants and organisers more than 11,000. The city of Leipzig recorded about 6,000 participants, while police in Munich and Freiburg counted about 4,000 and 3,500 respectively. In Cologne, police said turnout was well below the 15,000 people who had registered.
In Frankfurt, police broke up the demonstration after repeated throwing of pyrotechnics and stones, and water cannon were deployed temporarily. Hesse's interior minister Roman Poseck said several police officers were injured, one of them possibly more seriously. "We assume there were about 100 left-wing extremist-motivated violent offenders," the minister said.
In Cologne, police first cancelled a march because pyrotechnics were set off and some participants ignored the mask ban, and later used a water cannon against violence-prone demonstrators after pyrotechnics were used against officers. In Hamburg, at the end of the march, demonstrators piled up construction barriers and set some of them on fire, and pyrotechnics and barriers were thrown at police; police put out the fire with a water cannon. In Berlin, police said the rally passed "almost without incident" and one person was briefly detained; a separate evening march was stopped after a firecracker was thrown towards a police vehicle.
Ahead of the rallies, security authorities had warned that left-wing extremists could infiltrate the demonstrations. The organisers had declared that they opposed any violence against people and property.
The protests took place amid a wave of discontent in Europe over living costs and conditions in education. In France, trade unions and parents have joined protests by school and university students. According to the French Interior Ministry, 320,000 people took part in marches across the country on October 31, including 70,000 in Paris; police used tear gas in Paris and Lyon. A week earlier, on October 24, 1,435 people were detained and 267 police officers and gendarmes were injured during protests in France.
