Cost of living protests hit Belgium, Italy, Portugal and France

Hundreds of thousands take to the streets for separate demonstrations, putting pressure on governments across the EU.

Italian demonstrators clash with police at Piazza Duomo in Milan on Saturday [Piero Cruciatti/AFP]

Hundreds of thousands of Europeans have taken to the streets in separate, uncoordinated demonstrations to protest against the rising cost of living in their countries.

Saturday’s wave of unrest in Belgium, France, Italy and Portugal has put pressure on governments across the European Union.

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France experienced one of its most turbulent days of protests in decades, with more than 550,000 people joining demonstrations, according to the Ministry of Interior, and police facing off with protesters across the country.

The marches, which followed weeks of student protests, degenerated into clashes, looting and fires after violent fringe groups targeted public buildings, luxury boutiques and supermarkets, and attacked police vehicles and officers.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said 1,200 people were arrested and 150 police officers were hurt. “It’s a miracle the toll wasn’t higher,” he said as he visited officers deployed in central Paris.

Dozens of shops were looted in Paris, Marseille, Nice, Nantes, Bordeaux, Limoges, Lille, Toulouse and Strasbourg, the French news agency AFP reported.

Whole streets in the capital “have been devastated”, Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said.

A fire set by masked protesters in Limoges largely destroyed the more than 140-year-old town hall, while city halls in Marseille and Lille were broken into and vandalised. In Lyon, protesters torched the city’s tourist office.

President Emmanuel Macron said on X that those responsible would be “prosecuted and punished”.

In Belgium’s capital, Brussels – which has already seen weeks of protests by students against university registration fees – police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters, whom they accused of launching missiles at them and setting fires.

In Liege, a smaller city east of Brussels, police also deployed water cannon to break up demonstrations. Police did not say how many people attended.

Meanwhile, in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, an estimated tens of thousands of protesters marched against the cost of living crisis, low wages and an inability to access housing in major cities. House prices in Portugal have more than doubled ⁠⁠since 2017, while rents for new leases have increased nearly as much.

Portuguese Parliamentary Affairs Minister Carlos ‌‌Abreu ‌‌Amorim said on Friday that the “government will not yield to shouts from the street”. Protesters said their leaders are “out of touch” with the problem.

In Milan, rioters clashed with police, looted stores and set property on fire in the city centre, emptying Piazza del Duomo and a luxury arcade that would usually be full of shoppers.

A march against wars and rising living costs began peacefully, but masked protesters threw stones, paving blocks and other objects at riot police and set fire to barricades made from bar tables.

Police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse the crowds.

At least two police officers were injured, and about 50 demonstrators, many of them minors, were detained, the Italian LaPresse news agency reported.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the violence.

“Demonstrating is a right. Setting our cities ablaze is not,” she wrote on X, blaming “hooligans who exploit demonstrations to sow chaos”.

Milan’s centre-left mayor, Giuseppe Sala, said “the reasons for the protests were understandable. The violence against law enforcement and serious damage to the city are not justifiable.”

In Bologna, police also reported that, alongside peaceful rallies, protesters threw stones and clashed with officers.

Demonstrators in Lisbon set up tents to protest against the housing shortage, soaring rents and low wages [Filipe Amorim/AFP]

French protests spill over

Although protests in the other countries did not reach the same scale as the rallies in France, they may be a sign of discontent spilling over, Alberto Alemanno, professor of EU law and policy at HEC Paris Business School, told Al Jazeera.

“France is the epicentre of this movement … and there are signs now that this is spreading beyond France,” Alemanno said.

He said Saturday’s protests may not be the last in many of these countries and new hotspots could emerge.

In Greece, Germany, and Austria, the “early stages” of a movement are emerging, with mobilisation expected “in the coming week”, he said.

They are not a single movement, he explained, but several protests happening at the same time, with some “shared grievances”: underfunded education, rising living costs and, for students, uncertain prospects after graduation.

The unrest comes at a crucial time for Europe, Alemanno said, as the continent prepares for an “unprecedented super-cycle of national elections” in the coming 12 months, with votes scheduled in Spain, France, Italy and Poland.

“Inevitably, all these protests, all these mobilisations, are going to be at the centre of the political conversation,” Alemanno said.

Riot police fire water cannon during a youth protest in Brussels [Nicolas Maeterlinck/AFP]

数十万人走上街头进行多场示威游行，给欧盟各国政府施加压力。

周六，意大利示威者在米兰大教堂广场与警方发生冲突。[Piero Cruciatti/AFP]

数十万欧洲人走上街头，举行各自独立的示威游行，抗议本国不断上涨的生活成本。

周六比利时、法国、意大利和葡萄牙爆发的骚乱给整个欧盟各国政府带来了压力。

（共3条） 阿尔巴尼亚警方在针对拉马的抗议活动升级之际发射橡皮子弹

法国数十万人抗议改革，催泪瓦斯和骚乱不断（列表 2/3）

法国爆发抗议生活成本上涨的示威活动，建筑物和汽车被纵火焚烧（共3条，此为第3条）。

法国经历了数十年来最动荡的抗议日之一，据内政部称，超过55万人参加了示威游行，全国各地警方与抗议者发生对峙。

在持续数周的学生抗议活动之后，游行演变成冲突、抢劫和纵火，因为暴力边缘团体以公共建筑、奢侈品精品店和超市为目标，并袭击了警车和警员。

法国总理塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔努表示，已有1200人被捕，150名警察受伤。他在视察部署在巴黎市中心的警员时说：“伤亡人数没有更多简直是个奇迹。”

据法新社报道，巴黎、马赛、尼斯、南特、波尔多、利摩日、里尔、图卢兹和斯特拉斯堡等地数十家商店遭到洗劫。

巴黎市长埃马纽埃尔·格雷戈尔表示，首都的整条街道“都遭到了破坏”。

在利摩日，蒙面示威者纵火焚烧了拥有140多年历史的市政厅，几乎将其夷为平地；马赛和里尔的市政厅也遭到闯入和破坏。在里昂，示威者焚烧了该市的旅游局。

法国总统埃马纽埃尔·马克龙在X电视台表示，相关责任人将被“起诉和惩罚”。

在比利时首都布鲁塞尔，学生们已经连续数周抗议大学注册费，警方发射催泪瓦斯和高压水炮驱散抗议者，并指责他们向警方投掷石块和纵火。

在布鲁塞尔以东的小城市列日，警方也动用水炮驱散示威人群。警方没有透露有多少人参加了示威活动。

与此同时，在葡萄牙首都里斯本，估计有数万名抗议者走上街头，抗议生活成本危机、低工资以及在主要城市难以获得住房。自2017年以来，葡萄牙的房价已经翻了一番多，而新租约的租金也上涨了近一倍。

葡萄牙议会事务部长卡洛斯·阿布雷乌·阿莫林周五表示，“政府不会屈服于街头的呼声”。抗议者则称他们的领导人“脱离实际”，不了解问题的严重性。

在米兰，暴徒与警察发生冲突，抢劫商店，并在市中心纵火焚烧财产，导致大教堂广场和通常挤满购物者的豪华拱廊空无一人。

一场反对战争和生活成本上涨的游行以和平的方式开始，但蒙面抗议者向防暴警察投掷石块、铺路砖和其他物品，并放火焚烧用酒吧桌子制成的路障。

警方动用了水炮和催泪瓦斯驱散人群。

据意大利新闻社 LaPresse 报道，至少有两名警察受伤，约 50 名示威者被拘留，其中许多是未成年人。

意大利总理乔治亚·梅洛尼谴责暴力事件。

“示威游行是一项权利，但放火烧毁我们的城市则不是，”她在X上写道，并谴责“利用示威游行制造混乱的暴徒”。

米兰中左翼市长朱塞佩·萨拉表示，“抗议的理由可以理解。但针对执法人员的暴力行为和对城市的严重破坏是不可接受的。”

博洛尼亚警方也报告称，除了和平集会外，抗议者还投掷石块并与警察发生冲突。

里斯本的示威者搭起帐篷，抗议住房短缺、租金飙升和工资低下。[Filipe Amorim/AFP]

法国抗议活动蔓延至其他地区

巴黎高等商学院欧盟法律与政策教授阿尔贝托·阿莱曼诺告诉半岛电视台，尽管其他国家的抗议活动规模不及法国的集会，但这可能表明不满情绪正在蔓延。

“法国是这场运动的中心……现在有迹象表明，这场运动正在法国以外的地方蔓延，”阿莱曼诺说。

他表示，周六的抗议活动可能并非这些国家最后一次抗议活动，新的热点地区可能会出现。

他说，在希腊、德国和奥地利，一场运动的“早期阶段”正在出现，预计“未来一周”将出现动员活动。

他解释说，这并非一场单一的运动，而是同时发生的几场抗议活动，它们有一些“共同的不满”：教育经费不足、生活成本上涨，以及学生毕业后前景不明朗。

阿莱曼诺表示，这场动荡正值欧洲的关键时刻，因为欧洲大陆正准备在未来 12 个月内迎来“前所未有的超级国家选举周期”，西班牙、法国、意大利和波兰都将举行投票。

“不可避免地，所有这些抗议活动、所有这些动员都将成为政治对话的中心，”阿莱曼诺说。

布鲁塞尔，防暴警察用水炮驱散青年抗议人群。[Nicolas Maeterlinck/AFP]