France is deploying 70,000 police for a third weekend of cost-of-living protests as youth-led rallies are set to spread to Germany

France's Interior Minister Laurent Nunez has mobilised 70,000 officers — the same number deployed last weekend — after 410,000 people marched across the country the previous Saturday, with security forces braced for a repeat of the looting and riots that struck cities on October 17. Protests are now in their third consecutive weekend, driven by students, trade unions and a resurgent Yellow Vest movement angry over living costs, crumbling schools and a university admissions system widely condemned as unfair.

Nunez warned of "a very high risk" of disorder after 8pm, when radical groups are expected to exploit Halloween masks to hide identities, with laws already allowing police to ban face coverings.

The unrest has gone continental: Germany's 'Gen Z regelt' alliance has called supporters onto the streets in more than 30 cities to demand higher school spending, housing and opposition to mandatory military service.

A 15-year-old Parisian protester captured the mood: "When I was little, I was told young people were the future."