Cost-of-living protests sweep France, Belgium, Spain

2,397 arrested in France

PROTESTS against rising living costs swept across Europe from Saturday, 17 October 2026, with no fewer than 550,000 people marching in France and violent clashes in several Italian cities, Belgium, Portugal and Spain.

Thousands in France, said to be up to 550,000 joined 110 marches across the country, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told news agencies. The Reuters reported that the Interior Ministry put the number of arrests at 2,397, adding that about 1,000 police officers were injured. The town hall in Limoges was set on fire, and the Retail and Trade Federation said about 1,500 shops were damaged, reports said.

In a television address on Sunday, President Emmanuel Macron said: “Tonight, we all reel anger and shame.” Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, put France’s annual inflation for September at 3.4 per cent in figures released on Friday, 16 October. Food prices rose 1.5 per cent, while fuel for personal transport rose 37.0 per cent. The French statistics office, INSEE, said diesel was up 44.1 per cent and heating oil 64.6 per cent.

In Italy, protests turned violent in Milan, Turin, Bologna and Bergamo, Deutsche Welle. Citing the ANSA news agency, DW said masked youths in Milan’s Piazza Duomo threw fireworks and bottles at police and put up barricades, and police cleared the square with tear gas. At least four police officers and 20 demonstrators were injured, and about 50 young people were arrested, roughly half of them minors.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the violence and backed the police.

“Demonstrating is a right, but setting our cities on fire is not,” she said.

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said: “The reasons for the protest were understandable. The violence against police and the serious damage to the city, however, cannot be justified.” In Rome, the CGIL trade union said 100,000 people joined its march. The union’s leader, Maurizio Landini, called a general strike for Friday, 20 November.

Eurostat put Italy’s September inflation at 4.2 per cent, the sharpest monthly rise in the EU. Euronews reported that diesel prices rose after a fuel tax cut expired on 5 October.

In Portugal, tens of thousands marched in Lisbon in a protest called by the CGTP union over living costs and housing, Reuters reported.

Protesters then set up a tent camp in Rossio Square.

“We fully understand that people want answers,” Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said, according to AFP.

In Belgium, police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters on Saturday and made 10 arrests, Euronews reported. On Friday, 9 October, about 30,000 people marched in Brussels during a national strike against budget cuts.

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Prime Minister Bart De Wever said the cuts were needed to avoid a “debt and interest-cost spiral”. Eurostat put Belgium’s inflation at 4.5 per cent and its fuel price rise at 46.6 per cent, the highest among the protesting countries.

In Spain, weeks of protests over housing costs led Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call a snap general election for Sunday, 29 November, after parliament rejected his housing proposals, The Independent and AFP reported.

Spain’s statistics office, INE, put consumer inflation at 4.9 per cent in September, the highest since February 2023.

Across the euro area, inflation rose to 3.8 per cent put consumer inflation at 4.9 per cent in September, the highest since February 2023.

Across the euro area, inflation rose to 3.8 per cent in September from 2.2 per cent a year earlier, Eurostat said. Energy prices rose 18.8 per cent, while food inflation was 1.0 per cent.