Rioters in Germany looted stores, smashed windows and torched trash bins after massive Gen Z-led demonstrations over affordability spiraled into chaos, authorities said.
Protests organized by a group called Gen Z regelt, loosely translated as Gen Z’s Got This, took place in cities across Germany on Saturday. The group said about 120,000 demonstrators participated in gatherings in 34 cities.
Dozens of police officers were injured, authorities said. Masked rioters threw bottles and firecrackers, they said.
Gen Z regelt distanced itself from the violence, noting that its demonstrations ended early Saturday evening. “We stand for peaceful protest, democratic values and the right to freely express our opinion,” it said in a statement posted on social media.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told the tabloid newspaper Bild that police had prevented “excesses of violence like those seen in Paris” and blamed “violent left-wing groups and anarchists from the migrant community” for the disturbances — without providing further details.
In Frankfurt, rioters smashed shop windows and tossed molotov cocktails at emergency services providers, police said on social media.
Roman Poseck, interior minister of the state of Hesse, told a news conference Sunday that 54 people between the ages of 13 and 29 had been arrested in the city. A hundred police officers were injured, one seriously, Poseck said, while 17 buildings were damaged and five looted.
In Cologne, 23 police officers were injured and five police vehicles were damaged after masked rioters threw glass bottles, stones and firecrackers, police said in a statement Sunday.
Incident commander Martin Lotz said it was important to distinguish between peaceful protesters and those he said had “come to Cologne to riot and to use the gathering as a cover for violence.”
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner said 27 police officers were injured in the capital and accused “political actors” of stoking unruliness.
“Peaceful protest is a fundamental right. Violence against police officers is not,” he said.
The protests in Germany come amid youth-led demonstrations in a number of European countries over the cost of living. About 320,000 people took part in a third consecutive weekend of protests in France on Saturday, according to the country’s Interior Ministry, while hundreds of people were arrested, though both figures were lower than those from the past two weeks.
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