PARIS (Dispatches) - Youth-led protests are spreading across France, Albania, Greece and Belgium, driven by rising living costs, education concerns and dissatisfaction with government policies. 
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took part in nationwide protests in France that quickly turned violent. Police used tear gas and batons to try to disperse unsanctioned marches, while in both Lille and Marseille, protesters briefly forced their way into the town halls before being removed by police.
In Marseille, protesters stormed the town hall, ramming the door with security barriers they removed from the street. They briefly managed to enter the municipal building, where a protester spray-painted an “A” for anarchy on a wall before the police removed them.
Around Place de la République in central Paris, a peaceful march turned violent, with police firing teargas at black-clad and masked rioters who threw fireworks and paving stones, attacked a bank and looted a sports shop.
“We’re taking the Bastille!” one demonstrator yelled.
French authorities detained dozens of protesters across the country, with more arrests expected.
Saturday’s mobilization follows calls on social media to revive the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement, which emerged in 2018 against social injustice.
The protests began last month at schools in the poor northern suburbs of Paris, where anger over teacher absences and shabby facilities quickly morphed into a nationwide movement against inequality, weak public spending and falling standards.
Saturday’s protests called for teachers and students, laborers, pensioners and farmers to join the protests and widen the movement.
French authorities said 140 protests involving 32,800 people had been recorded outside Paris by midday, blaming the unrest and violence on what they said was the “ultra-left”.
The CGT, one of France’s biggest labor unions, has also backed the protests, calling for “higher wages and pensions, lower prices and the protection of public services that meet people’s needs”.
About 45% of French people are worried about the rising cost of living and inflation, according to a 2,000-person survey conducted in October.
Protesters in hi-vis vests blocked streets, an echo of the unrest that dogged President Emmanuel Macron’s previous term, and in Marseille rubbish bins were set alight.
Both the far left and far right in France sought to capitalize on the protest movement, with the left positioning itself on the side of the protesters and the right backing the police.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, marched in a demonstration on Tuesday and has expressed support for student protesters.
A large police presence was visible in central Paris, especially near landmarks such as the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe, which were excluded from the routes of the two official demonstrations.
About 100 people walked towards the police at the beginning protest yelling, “all cops are bastards!”.
Macron is entering the final stretch of his presidency, leaving behind a polarised electorate and a badly fragmented political landscape.
On Friday, the president appealed for calm and respect for people and property as officials warned of possible violence.
In recent weeks, there have been thousands of arrests, hundreds of injuries, and schools set on fire as the new school year descended into nationwide student protests that are influencing the country’s presidential election campaign and drawing international attention.