Cost-of-living protests in France and Italy have led to over 400 arrests, as politicians condemn looting while also sympathising with their grievances.
The protests took place across France, while in Italy, they were mostly concentrated in Milan.
In the Milan protests, the 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. Images of the aftermath showed a severely damaged carabinieri car.
Police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowds.
At least two police officers were injured and about 50 demonstrators, including many minors, were detained, the LaPresse news agency reported.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni condemned the violence in a social media post.
“Demonstrating is a right. Setting our cities ablaze is not,” she wrote, citing “hooligans who exploit demonstrations to sow chaos, attack those responsible for ensuring security and hold entire cities hostage.”
Laurent Nuñez, French Interior Minister, told reporters that there were 110 marches across the country, drawing 550,000 protesters and resulting in around 400 arrests on Saturday.
Demonstrators expressed widespread frustration and anger at the government as gasoline, energy and food prices have spiked in recent months.
A car and a newspaper kiosk were set alight in Paris, where 100,000 protesters were gathered. Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse violent groups.
Police attempted to push back people wearing hoods and masks and throwing fireworks and other objects at officers in the Place de la République, northeast of the Paris city centre.
Large numbers of riot police were deployed in the square and surrounding streets.
A fire also broke out inside a tourist office in Lyon and in the southern port city of Marseille, some shops and a police station were damaged, while some protesters briefly forced their way into the lobby of City Hall.
Protesters joined secondary school students who have been protesting over education conditions, after more than three weeks of school blockades.
The action follows calls on social media to revive the yellow vest movement, which emerged in 2018 in protest against social injustice. Student groups protesting since mid-September have urged supporters to join.
The CGT, one of France’s major trade unions, is also backing the protests, calling for “higher wages and pensions, lower prices and the protection of public services that meet people’s needs”.
President Emmanuel Macron appealed for calm and respect for people and property on Friday as officials warned of possible violence.
“There is a constitutional right to protest and to express oneself, and I have always been vigilant and attentive that that right is fully respected,” Macron said in Brussels on Friday.
“But this right comes with the need to respect. Respect for people, respect for property, and therefore a commitment not to insult or destroy.”
Macron denounced as “unacceptable” the potential presence of people “solely to cause damage and create unrest”.
Police banned some other planned gatherings in central Paris. Many Métro stations were closed on Saturday at the request of police, including those around the Champs-Élysées and near the presidential palace, parliament and government offices.
In recent weeks, France has seen thousands of arrests, hundreds of injuries and schools set on fire as the new academic year descended into nationwide student protests that are influencing the country’s presidential election campaign and attracting international attention.
Some protesters, including teenagers who suffered particularly severe injuries, have blamed police riot-control weapons.
Nuñez suspended the use of a type of police stun grenade against the young demonstrators after a 15-year-old lost a hand.
On Tuesday, climate and social justice activist Greta Thunberg joined students at a secondary school in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
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