London: Police have clashed with protesters in France and Italy during massive rallies one week after similar gatherings descended into riots and looting in major cities.
Officers wielded batons against some of the protesters in Turin to prevent crowds from coming close to stores, highlighting anxiety about a repeat of the destruction witnessed on city streets one week earlier.
Protesters tried to force their way into the Colosseum in Rome, but police escorted them out, while others held a peaceful protest in the Italian capital.
The protests in France, meanwhile, were smaller and less violent than those seen on the previous weekend, when authorities estimated that 3000 stores were damaged or looted.
The French government estimated that about 440,000 people joined the protests in various cities on Saturday, down from an estimated 550,000 who took to the streets across the country the previous Saturday.
In Paris, students and union members joined a demonstration along a route agreed with authorities from Porte d’Italie to Porte de Vincennes, east of the city centre and distant from areas looted the previous weekend.
Most of the protest was peaceful, but some vandals tried to break into a car dealership, the Parisian police said in a statement.
About 110,000 people joined the Paris march, according to the police, who released photographs of home-made weapons such as blocks of timber with nails attached, which they confiscated from some of those in the crowd.
While authorities sought to ban rallies in cities including Marseilles and Lyon, some protesters gathered there and elsewhere to declare support for freedom of speech and freedom to demonstrate. Police used tear gas against protesters in Paris, Lyon and other cities.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said at least 1000 people were arrested at the events across the country on Saturday, speaking at about 8pm on Saturday night (5am on Sunday, AEST). He said the number was likely to increase.
There were more than 2700 arrests during the riots and looting on the previous weekend.
While attention has focused on France over the past week because of the scale of the looting and violence, similar protests in Italy led to looting in Milan and clashes with police in several cities.
Police named a freelance journalist, Youssef Siher, as a key organiser of a new October 17 movement that aimed to continue the protests and confront authorities, according to reports in national newspaper La Repubblica and other media outlets.
Siher was described as a 30-year-old second-generation Italian from Brescia, a pro-Palestine activist and co-ordinator of the protests.
While progressive activists dominated many protests, a right-wing rally assembled in Rome with a call to “unblock everything” and oppose those who were bringing city streets to a standstill or looting shops.
“We reject the permanent, fruitless and ideological confrontation of the youth left,” said the rally organised by student members of Azione, a centrist party whose name translates as “Action”.
Protesters gathered in cities ranging from Brussels to Madrid and Lisbon to demand government action on the cost of living, with housing costs a particular concern in Spain and Portugal.
While police in Lisbon and Porto cleared protest encampments in recent days, many protesters returned to continue campaigning for policies to ease the cost of housing.
In Madrid, the scene of massive rallies over housing in recent weeks, people gathered on Saturday to call for more protection for pensions.
Spanish unions are planning a general strike on November 11 to galvanise protest over living conditions ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections on November 29, to decide whether Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez remains in power.
While several European countries experienced protests on Saturday, they differed in scale and underlying issues. In Albania, protesters gathered in the capital, Tirana, to oppose Prime Minister Edi Rama, who is facing accusations of corruption.
In Serbia, tens of thousands of people attended student rallies on Thursday to urge a vote against the country’s strongman leader, Aleksandar Vucic, at elections on Sunday.
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