France Deploys 70,000 Police for Halloween Protests as Demonstrations Spread Across Europe

France's interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, warned this week of a very high risk of public disorder on Saturday, October 31, and said about 70,000 police officers and gendarmes will be deployed across the country for a new wave of Halloween protests. The number matches the deployment a week earlier. Nuñez said demonstrations will be allowed but not in city centres, where disorder is considered a risk, and that shop-protection measures introduced last week will be strengthened. He promised an extremely firm response and said authorities had detected social media calls for Saturday evening gatherings demanding a revolution. The Yellow Vest movement and student unions have called for protests. France has been shaken by anger over the cost of living and inequality, and nationwide demonstrations on October 17 turned into some of the country's worst rioting in years. Weeks of at times violent student protests have also hit Italy, Spain, Portugal and Albania. In Germany, an alliance called Gen Z regelt has called for turnouts in more than 30 cities to demand more spending on schools, climate protection and housing and to oppose any return to mandatory military service.

Breitbart, on the right, leads with France and frames it as "another weekend, another round of violence". It describes the October 17 unrest as leftist-driven rioting and mass looting, relies on Nuñez's quotes and the France 24 report, and adds that presidential elections are six months away and Marine Le Pen is surging in polls. The Guardian, on the left, leads with the spread of protests to Germany and their renewal in France. It stresses activists' complaints about education, housing and public services, and says police are mobilised against looting on the fringes of what organisers hope will be peaceful rallies. It quotes CDU politician Alexander Throm, who wants French-style scenes prevented, and Green co-leader Felix Banaszak, who warns that pre-emptive criminalisation could drive radicalisation. Both sides agree on the French police mobilisation and the cost-of-living backdrop. They differ on emphasis: Breitbart focuses on French security and electoral politics, the Guardian on the wider youth movement and the German debate. France 24 and the South China Morning Post largely repeat the minister's account.