Europe reeling from fresh ‘violent’ protests

A fresh wave of major protests triggered by widespread public grievances against the governments was sweeping across multiple European nations at the weekend.
The protests in France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Albania were driven by widespread popular anger over the rising cost of living, low wages, unaffordable housing, government corruption, public service cuts, and opposition to war.
What began as peaceful demonstrations -- frequently spearheaded by student groups and trade unions -- has turned into intense clashes between rioters and security forces in several major capitals and urban hubs. 
Clashes erupted in Paris as a mass march drew to a close Saturday, with more than 400,000 people rallying across France over school funding and soaring living costs in a fresh challenge to President Emmanuel Macron. Nearly 1,314 protesters were detained, the government said. 
The Paris march began peacefully, a week after widespread rioting and looting during protests across the country. But near the demonstration’s endpoint in eastern Paris, masked protesters hurled objects and fireworks at police, who answered with clouds of tear gas, deafening sound grenades and jets of water cannons.
The Interior Ministry put nationwide turnout at 410,000 -- fewer than the 550,000 it said protested last weekend -- while the CGT union that helped organize some of Saturday’s protests estimated nearly 800,000. The ministry’s estimate included 110,000 in Paris, where authorities confined the march to the city’s southeastern edge, away from the center. The CGT put the number of protesters in Paris at 250,000.
Authorities deployed 70,000 police officers and gendarmes, 10,000 more than a week earlier, after conceding they had underestimated the scale of the unrest on 17 October. 
Police made 128 arrests overnight in Barcelona for acts of “vandalism”, damage to public property” and “looting”, the regional Catalan police said on Sunday. Seventy-three of those arrested were minors, with the reports due to be sent "to the juvenile prosecutor's office", Catalan police chief Silvia Cata told Spain's 3CatInfo media outlet.
Footage on social media showed groups of young people, many clad in all-black, attacking businesses in Barcelona after gathering in the city centre for a rally that had not been declared to the authorities.
Security forces were deployed massively in Italy on Saturday for protests in which thousands rallied despite a sweeping crackdown in the wake of violent clashes last weekend.
Police said they arrested nine people and briefly detained 371 more -- including 110 minors -- who were taken to police stations in eight cities as clashes broke out at some protests.
Belgian police used tear gas and pepper spray as they clashed in Brussels on Saturday with anti-government demonstrators calling for better conditions in the education system, Reuters witnesses and Belgian media reported.
The clashes came after hundreds of mainly young protesters gathered in a continuation of rallies that have taken place in recent months, calling for more funding for education and accusing police of excessive violence.
Portuguese police cleared a camp in central Lisbon held to protest against the country's deepening housing crisis, baton-charging demonstrators in the early hours of Sunday and making 25 arrests.
Portugal is grappling with one of Europe's most acute home affordability crises, as prices have more than doubled since 2017 while rents for new leases have nearly doubled, with young people among the hardest hit.
Albanian riot police used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who threw rocks at officers and started a fire at the door of the agriculture ministry in the capital, Tirana, on Saturday.
Student-led demonstrations, fuelled by anger over perceived government corruption, a lack of jobs and poor education standards, have engulfed central Tirana and spread to other cities this month.
Demonstrators demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama have set fire to government buildings as well as banks, smashed shop windows and pulled up paving stones to throw at police.