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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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European authorities are bracing for fresh demonstrations this weekend across multiple countries after weeks of mass protests and more localized shows of frustration with social ills, ranging from the rising cost of living and stagnant wages to anger directed toward government officials and conflict in the Middle East.
France Security on Edge
Around 70,000 French police officers, including elite anti-terrorism units, are deployed across France, officials said, in a bid to stop a repeat of the looting, clashes, and fires that started last weekend.
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Hundreds of thousands of protesters had spilled out into the streets to decry soaring living costs and education funding, spiraling into bursts of violence and ransacking of clothes, food, and technology stores in France's worst unrest in decades.
French officials imposed broad restrictions and blamed far-left organizations, anti-government groups and "criminals" for fanning demonstrations that started as student and trade union-led protests.
"We will be extremely vigilant, extremely firm, and we will let absolutely nothing pass," French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on Friday.
The planned events on Saturday come a day after a drive-by shooting on the outskirts of Paris, which killed one person and injured several others. Authorities have described the incident as a racially motivated terror attack. French media said the 39-year-old suspect was detained in Coignières, just west of La Verrière.
Americans visiting Paris for Sunday's NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints were warned by the U.S. embassy in Paris to avoid crowded areas over the weekend and "exercise caution and be aware of their surroundings."
“It’s looking like tomorrow is going to be a bad day in France, so you worry about it,” President Donald Trump told reporters Friday. “I would have said the NFL could have probably postponed that match, if you want to know, because France is really in trouble.”
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Italy Cracks Down on Riots
Protests are slated to take place in multiple Italian cities, including Rome and Milan, according to the so-called "October 17 Movement," a grassroots protest group.
Around 300 Italian police officers have been deployed to monitor demonstrations and redirect traffic in the capital on Saturday and Sunday, on top of "hundreds" of additional local police taking to the streets.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala on Friday appealed for local businesses to remain open after police clashed with protesters in the city and elsewhere in northern Italy last week. At least 32 people were arrested and 14 police officers injured in Milan, with hundreds of others taken to police headquarters, according to the country's Ansa news agency.
Italy's government dispatched 500 soldiers to Milan earlier this week and pledged a "firm response" to protests against ballooning living costs spun into incidents of vandalism, property damage and violence.
Hundreds of soldiers are already thought to be stationed in the city, on top of thousands of law enforcement officers amid tougher penalties for rioting young people.
Under newly announced security measures, law enforcement agents can now detain children as young as 14 years old, if they appear to pose a danger.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said young people, including teenagers, taking part in the disorder was "new and complex phenomenon." Milan police say around 2,000 very young protesters took part in last week's chaos, many of whom were "naturalized, second-generation Italians."
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Housing Crisis Sparks Iberian Marches
In Spain, authorities warned traffic will be slowed by protests in several parts of the capital and urged those moving around Madrid on Saturday and Sunday to use public transport.
The General Confederation of Labour (CGT), one of the largest trade unions in Spain, said it would march through central Madrid on Saturday over public pensions.
Weeks of demonstrations across the country were sparked by deep-rooted anger with unaffordable housing and rental costs.
The eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her Madrid apartment last month lit massive protests in Spain, with waves of demonstrations sweeping across the country as residents denounced rental bills, increasing numbers of short-term lets and long-time inhabitants being priced out their homes.
Similar demonstrations have hit Portuguese cities, with more expected this weekend in Lisbon and Porto after tent encampments sprang up.
Wider Unrest Across the Continent
Teachers, doctors, young people and those in creative industries converged in Tirana, Albania, on Saturday for another day of protests.
Authorities fired what appeared to be rubber bullets against protesters on Saturday, according to Reuters who said its reporters found rubber pellets on the ground. In rising escalation in recent days, protesters burned government buildings and threw rocks at local law enforcement who responded with tear gas.
The protests were originally triggered earlier this summer by plans emerging that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was among a group planning to build a high-end hotel in an Albanian nature reserve as well as alleged government corruption and poor education standards. Around 1,500 police officers were sent onto the streets of Tirana on Saturday, according to local media.
Thousands of people also marched in Athens earlier this week over education funding, and a prominent Greek trade union called for fresh demonstrations amid discontent over living conditions.
Small-scale events were advertised on Saturday in Vienna in support of gender equality, with Austrian authorities saying that there will be temporary traffic closures and traffic diversions in the demonstration area. Meanwhile, pro-Palestine gatherings, which are a part of the volunteer-run human rights and activist organization "Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign," sprung up across Ireland, including in cities like Dublin.
In the five weeks between mid-September and October 23, there were nearly 180 protests across 12 European countries, according to Spain's El País newspaper.
Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Anthony Murray and Matthew Cannon.
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