Violence in France, Italy and Spain after protests over social demands

The riots in France broke out after the demonstrations ended After almost all of the demonstrations called this Saturday in France against the rising cost of living and student conditions had proceeded peacefully, drawing 800,000 people according to the organizers and 410,000 according to the police, riots began to erupt at some of them, such as in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Toulouse, or Strasbourg. Clashes between protesters and security forces also occurred in Clermont-Ferrand, Nantes, Lille, Grenoble, or Nice, while in Orléans, where major disturbances were feared due to the coincidence of the Congress of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally with an anti-fascist rally, calm was the dominant note. While at midday the Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez, was congratulating himself on the calm in which the demonstrations were taking place, though he called for prudence, tension began to rise as they were ending. The number of participants was similar to last Saturday's, according to the organizers, though lower according to the Government's figures, which at the time put the number at 550,000. The police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrations in various parts of the country, which led to scenes of tension, though far from the one that swept the country last Saturday, leaving citizens deeply shaken. Unlike then, when some 3,000 shops were vandalized and looted, there were no widespread assaults reported at the various protests. The police deployment, which according to the Interior Minister was "significantly" reinforced, with up to 70,000 officers deployed across the country, along with other measures, such as the banning of public gatherings in various cities, extended a sense of calm for much of the day. Only at the end of the demonstrations did the skirmishes with security forces begin to spread. The demonstrations called this Saturday in Italy against rising prices degenerated into clashes between police and protesters in Rome and other cities, such as Bologna (north), with the burning of dumpsters and the throwing of stones. Tension rose in the late afternoon in the capital of Emilia-Romagna, where a demonstration that had begun peacefully descended into episodes of violence in several streets of the city center. Groups of young people with covered faces set up barricades, set fire to garbage dumpsters, and threw bottles, stones, and pyrotechnic material at the officers. The police responded with trucks equipped with high-pressure water cannons to disperse the protesters, while firefighters intervened to extinguish the fires. The riots also reached Rome, where some spontaneous demonstrations moved toward the archaeological zone and dozens of people managed to get inside the Colosseum by surprise, in front of the tourists visiting the monument. The Italian Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, later confirmed that security forces quickly regained control of the site and stated that no material damage had been recorded to the amphitheater nor any people injured. A gathering of dozens of young people called via social media in the center of Barcelona (northeast Spain) degenerated this afternoon into looting of shops, burning of dumpsters, damage to street furniture, and clashes with the Mossos d'Esquadra, at whom stones and hard objects were thrown. The protest, which circulated on social media under the slogan "Institut Indignats" — a translation of the "Lycées Indignés" movement, which is behind the student mobilizations of recent weeks in France — gathered dozens of young people in Plaça de Catalunya, most of them dressed in black. According to sources from the Catalan police, the gathered crowd began causing material damage to street furniture and street disturbances, which forced riot police to deploy and intervene to curb the incidents. As a result of the police intervention, the protesters dispersed in groups around Plaça de Catalunya, pursued by riot police officers, who charged against some of them. All of this took place amid a large crowd of citizens and tourists who were in the city center this Saturday afternoon, and meters away from the encampment for the right to housing that has been set up for weeks in Barcelona's Plaça de Catalunya. The incidents intensified as the afternoon progressed, and isolated groups of protesters, with covered faces, attempted to loot shops in the area and broke some windows while setting fire to street furniture and awnings of outdoor terraces. Almost 159 million Brazilians are called to the polls to elect the next head of State, who will take power on 01/05/2027 This demonstration adds to that of the teachers, who have been protesting for a week for improvements in the education system On the list are prominent figures of the Nicaraguan dissidence, such as the leader of the peasant movement Medardo Mairena