French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced that more than 1,300 rioters had been arrested on Saturday as Paris became the epicenter of the unrest and was transformed into an armed fortress. 53 police officers were injured.
“Violent individuals have no place in the marches,” the Paris Police Department said in a social media post. “The objective is clear: to prevent troublemakers from joining the procession, and to ensure the safety of the demonstrators.”
Nuñez said security forces faced an “extremely high level of violence … with projectiles constantly being thrown and mortar fireworks fired.”
Over 70,000 police were deployed as over 110,000 protesters marched in Paris, according to Just the News. More than 500,000 protested in the streets last weekend, the Associated Press reported.
Albania Comes Under Attack
Protesters set dumpsters on fire in Albania. Couch cushions Rama had placed as a symbolic invitation to dialogue with students met the same fate, according to Euronews and the New York Post.
Over 2,500 police officers were deployed in the capital, Tirana. They used water cannons on the rioters.
Belgium Hit by Riots
A similar scene occurred in Brussels, Belgium, where police also used water cannons and tear gas to break up student-made barricades in the streets.
High-end retailers and luxury boutiques were hastily boarded up across Brussels. They were looted and vandalized last week, and people feared it would happen again.
According to the New York Post, demonstrators attempted to set fire to a pile of rental scooters, road signs and bicycles. The police reportedly stopped them.
Cops kicked and hit a protester, according to a witness who spoke with Reuters. The situation called for a lot more than that – only five people were arrested in Brussels. Once again, the riots are being treated with kid gloves, which is a disaster in the making when it comes to Islamic supremacists and communists.
Italy Under Siege
More protests exploded in Italy, where thousands marched in the streets. Stores in Naples, Rome, Turin, Bologna, Florence, and Milan boarded up their windows, expecting the same level of looting that occurred in France last week. The protests in Rome, Turin, and Bologna turned violent.
Hundreds of protesters stormed the Roman Colosseum and clashed with police at the historic gates. Many were waving Palestinian flags. They were seen cheering and yelling inside the 2,000-year-old arena during the demonstrations in Rome as security forces ejected them.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni put Milan on high alert and deployed 500 soldiers to help the 5,000 police officers on scene, along with drone surveillance, railway station checks and rapid-response units.
The soldiers were not equipped with pepper spray or Tasers, only plastic restraint ties to help arrest rowdy protesters, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said. What a joke.
In Rome, the protesters escalated the violence. They threw bottles and launched fireworks at police. Euronews reported that protesters tore down and defaced street signs.
However, solid on-the-ground reporting of the riots seems hard to find, and what you read in the mainstream media does not even come close to describing the violence engulfing these European cities.