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On 17 October 2026, nationwide unrest in France regarding rising living costs, fuel prices, public services, education, and other issues escalated as student organisations joined protests against the cost of living, called by trade unions and the yellow vests movement. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 110 marches drew 550,000 participants, including 110,000 in Paris; organisers estimated 800,000.
While some of the initial student protests and demonstrations throughout late September and October had been conducted peacefully, recurrent violence climaxed across the country on the weekend of the 17th. Thousands of rioters and vandals exploited the tense situation to loot shops, set fires, and attack public buildings and police, resulting in what have been widely described as the worst riots in French history post-May 68. The riots caused hundreds of millions of euros in damage. Around 1,500 shops were severely damaged. More than 1,500 fires involving vehicles and public equipment were reported. Public buildings and businesses were also attacked in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Lille and Bordeaux. Around 60 buildings suffered fire damage. The Associated Press reported about 400 arrests during the day. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu later said 1,200 people had been arrested and 150 police officers and gendarmes injured.
In Lyon, where about 20,000 people marched, hooded individuals were seen vandalising a branch of the tourist office, tearing letters from its sign and damaging the premises. The tourist office was set on fire by several individuals. In Marseille, shops and a municipal police station were damaged, and protesters briefly entered the lobby of city hall. In Limoges, the historic Hôtel de Ville was set ablaze during the evening; the fire continued into the following morning and partially destroyed the 19th-century building. A demonstrator lost a hand in Saint-Étienne; Nuñez said an investigation had opened and did not confirm reports that the injury was caused by a police grenade. In Paris, tens of thousands took part in the demonstration. The Associated Press reported that cars were set on fire and shops looted during clashes between police and groups of protesters.
Clashes and property damage were also reported during protests in Italy, Belgium and Portugal.
Student and fuel protesters atop the Monument à la République, dressed in a yellow vest reading «1961, la police noie les Algérien‑nes / 2026, la police mutile les lycéen‑nes» ("1961, the police drown Algerians / 2026, the police mutilate high school students"), 17 October 2026.
The 17 October riots originated in September during the 2026 French fuel protests.[citation needed] The Yellow vests movement saw a resurgence on social media, with calls for a general mobilisation against the cost-of-living crisis scheduled for 17 October. On 18 September, due to poor school conditions, school staff and students began protesting in Paris, which soon spread nationwide. Whilst originally for cost-of-living, the new Yellow vests movement expanded in reaction to the police brutality the student protesters faced in past weeks.
On 17 October, the convergence of struggles brought together students, parents, Yellow vests, the far left, as well as climate activists. According to the Interior Ministry, around 550,000 people took part in marches nationwide, including 110,000 in Paris. The CGT put the figure at 800,000. Violence spread as night fell, with groups of young people looting shops and starting fires in Paris and police responding with tear gas and baton charges.
There were riots in various places, causing hundreds of millions of euros damage across caused the country. Approximately 1,500 stores were severely damaged. Over 500 first responders were injured. The Hôtel de Ville of Limoges was burned. Looting was reported in several cities, as well as violent clashes with the riot police in Paris. Over 1,500 fires involving vehicles and public equipment were reported. Around 60 buildings were damaged by fire. The city's tourist information office of Lyon got severely damaged by fires.
In Major Italian cities (Milan, Turin, Bologna, Verona, Rome, Bari, Florence, Venice, Padua, Treviso and Cagliari) Italian students and farmers were protesting and blockading ports and major highways because of empty supermarket shelves, elevated living costs, and soaring gas and fuel prices attributed to the war in Iran. the Italian government also planned to limit the number of foreign students in Italian schools, The day was designated as No Meloni Day because of Giorgia Meloni.
Storefront of a Nébuleuse Bijoux location in Paris, after being looted
In Milan, the police threw tear gas after protesters were throwing stones at them in the Gothic Cathedral, In Bologna Police used a water cannon to try to disperse the crowd and arrested 7 people, In Rome Protesters threw firecrackers and cherry bombs and set off fire extinguishers to throw them at the Ministry of Education building, the protesters were calling for the Minister of Education to “get out of the building” while shouting the slogan “More classrooms, no more bombs.”, the Italian Education minister said “This is not a democratic expression of dissent, nor a defence of the school, but an attack on institutions and political hooliganism”.
Belgium
The October 17 protests were against the education reforms and rising education costs that “they fear will make higher education less accessible”. They were primarily focused in the big cities (Brussels and Liege), 195 people were arrested on Saturday and they were inspired and was a direct spillover of the protests in France, it was also a wider Anti-Austerity movement as the Prime minister of Belgium,Bart De Wever proposed €10 billion in budget cuts and rising the retirement age to 67, as the protests started to go on it went violent and the interior minister of Belgium, Bernard Quintin said the situation was “no longer simply a protest.” “It is pure and simple violence, organized and repeated with the aim of destabilising our society,” he wrote in a post on social media, adding that “all necessary measures will be taken to restore order in the face of the rioters.”, The Belgian police started using tear gas and water cannons to break up the protesters, According to the Belgian Police the protesters started to use electric scooters and construction equipment to block roads and “Caused important damage” to major Belgian cities.
Albania
Because of a new multi-billion-dollar resort on Sazan Island, an ecologically protected island/wetland, proposed by Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump, people started to protest against the resort due to its ecological impact on the island. This led to the Flamingo revolution. This then spiralled into protests for the resignation of the incumbent Prime Minister Edi Rama. Throughout his tenure as Prime Minister, Rama has been accused of corruption primarily because he tried to overturn the suspension of his Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku in December. Despite being indicted by SPAK, Albania's anti-corruption police, for being “improperly influenced” to build a 3.7-mile tunnel in the south of the country. He took the issue to Albania's Constitutional Court, which didn't happen and led to her resignation and replacement by Albana Koçiu'. Balluku denied these allegations and said the allegations are “mudslinging, insinuations, half-truths, and lies.” Despite this, Rama is still defending her from prosecution by voting against removing her immunity, He has also been accused of centralizing authority and personalizing state institutions and cooperating with organized crime, Rioters are seen throwing rocks at a Police Cordon which prompted them to use tear gas and Water cannons, They also burnt government buildings down including the Ministry of Education, The Prime Ministers Office, The Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of the Interior and surrounding business, this lead to 89 people being injured, including 61 Police officers
Reactions
France
French authorities blamed far-left groups and opportunistic looters for the violence, while the left blamed the government for underestimating the movement, and raised questions on the police's strategy for maintaining order. On 19 October, interior minister Laurent Nuñez submitted his resignation, which the president Emmanuel Macron rejected. In several cities, a curfew was implemented on 19 October 2026 as a response to the riots.
Italy
The Italian government intended to deploy 500 army troops to defend Milan on 19 October and implement new security measures for 20 October, such as extending preventive detention for minors and cracking down on youth gangs. Additionally, shops in central Milan announced their early closures in response to the looting, and some have removed merchandise from their windows.
In response to some violent protesters in Belgium the European Commission said "The right to a peaceful protest is a fundamental right in all democratic countries and must be protected. Those who demonstrate peacefully must not be conflate with those who commit violent, Arson, Looting, or attacks on public buildings are unacceptable”
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