Daytime rallies give way to night-time unrest
What began on Saturday as large but mostly calm demonstrations against the cost of living ended in disorder after nightfall in Frankfurt, Germany's financial centre, and in Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg. Crowds ransacked stores in central Frankfurt, and officers confronted protesters in several cities. Police said they fired water cannon at demonstrators who threw fireworks, stones and bottles at emergency personnel.[S1]
The rallies were arranged by the campaign group Gen Z regelt, whose name conveys the idea of young people taking charge. Participants pressed for more money for schools and universities, relief from high living costs, an end to spending cuts and opposition to military service. Thousands took part, according to the organisers' own estimates.[S1]
The German unrest came on the same day as comparable youth-driven demonstrations in France, where more than 320,000 people took to the streets. Coverage of the German events was carried by multiple international outlets, which reported the looting and the clashes.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7][S8]
Police seal off shopping street and report arrests
Officers closed a long stretch of Frankfurt's principal shopping street, according to the AFP news agency, and a police spokesperson said a substantial number of people had been detained in the city. Authorities in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin counted up to 18,000 demonstrators in total, about half the figure the organisers had published on their website.[S1]
Frankfurt police described serious rioting in the city centre in a message on X. Windows at multiple businesses were broken, and molotov cocktails were hurled at emergency services, according to the force. In subsequent statements, officials said the glass at a gun shop had been shattered and that two firearms were seized after a suspect was taken into custody.[S1]
Minister points to extremists and rejects French example
Roman Poseck, interior minister of Hesse, the state whose capital is Frankfurt, said roughly 100 clearly identified left-wing extremists had joined the city's demonstration. He called the way the protests concluded shameful.[S1]
Poseck also invoked images from France, listing looting, burning houses, burning police vehicles and assaults on officers, and argued that France should not serve as a model in that respect.[S1]
