Who will take to the streets on Saturday - and what to expect

Protests are expected to take place in numerous cities in Germany on Saturday. After the riots in France, for example, there is great concern about violence. Rightly so? What do the security authorities say?

FAQ Protest Day "Gen Z regulates" Who will take to the streets on Saturday - and what to expect As of: October 29, 2026 • 1:02 p.m

There has been a real wave of protests recently: tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Albania in the past few weeks. Sometimes it was about the cost of living, sometimes about better education, sometimes against corruption. But the protests repeatedly ended in violence - with looting, burning barricades and attacks on security forces.

Now there is also mobilization in Germany. There will be demonstrations in around 30 cities on Saturday. The security authorities are preparing. Some observers fear violent actions such as those in France. Others criticize the fact that young people who actually only want to demonstrate for a legitimate cause are being criminalized in advance.

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That's not so clear. The group called for “Gen Z regulates” or “Gen Z stands up”. But it is not always clear which specific people are behind it. The website's imprint was changed twice within a week; on Thursday there was a Swiss address. Mobilization is also taking place in social media such as TikTok and Instagram and news channels such as Telegram - nationally and locally.

The Federal Student Conference had therefore already distanced itself from the planned protests and justified this with the “unclear” organizational structure of the initiative. Now there will be a separate protest in Berlin on November 20th. Teachers and other youth movements should also take part.

However: Jannis Julien Grimm from the Center for Interdisciplinary Peace and Conflict Research at the Free University of Berlin notes: A loose organizational structure is typical for an emerging protest movement. "Especially in early mobilization phases, protests often arise from informal networks, personal contacts and digital communication structures," he says. "A binding organization with clear responsibilities, fixed spokesperson roles and a well-developed political program often only develops later in life, if at all." Example: Fridays for Future.

More than 400,000 people took part in demonstrations across France. more

“Gen Z regulates” sees itself as showing solidarity with the student protests in France. There are six more or less concrete demands on the website:

Protest researcher Grimm from the Free University of Berlin sees a common experience of political powerlessness and insecurity in European countries. “For years we have seen increasing social inequality, rising costs of living, chronic underfunding of the education system in many places and a climate crisis, the long-term consequences of which will primarily be borne by the younger generations,” he says. "There is also the increasing militarization of European security policy, debates about conscription and rearmament, and the question of who should bear the costs of these political decisions."

This creates a generational conflict, especially in aging European societies, says the scientist: "Young people will feel the long-term consequences of today's decisions particularly strongly, but at the same time they have comparatively little political weight."

The “Gen Z regulates” initiative has called for protests across Germany on Saturday. The police warn of violent riots. ndr

Researcher Grimm believes that riots on the scale of those in France are unlikely. The police there are taking a much tougher approach. In addition, social acceptance of confrontational forms of protest is lower in Germany.

The Green Party leader Felix Banaszak generally warns against placing the participants under general suspicion. "The Union's rhetoric of preemptively criminalizing these protests and driving them into the corner of marauding gangs even drives people into radicalization if in doubt," he told the Editorial Network Germany (RND). Instead, one should “deal with their legitimate concerns in a politically sensible manner.”

And the security authorities? As always, they don't rule anything out in such situations, but they still express themselves relatively calmly. The Federal Ministry of the Interior sees no concrete calls for violence. However, parts of the left-wing extremist scene and isolated groups from abroad took up the calls for demonstrations and took part in the mobilization, according to a spokesman.

But others also warn of a possible infiltration of the protests. "The networking of the left-wing extremist scene is international and coordinated," said the chairman of the Bundestag's intelligence control committee, Marc Henrichmann (CDU), to the Handelsblatt. Violent leftists also crossed national borders. According to CDU interior expert Alexander Throm, the demonstrations could be “hijacked” by left-wing extremists and criminals with a migration background. “A sinister alliance is forming,” he told the newspaper.

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Berlin Police Chief Barbara Slowik Meisel also observes that there are calls to follow the protests in France. However, these are not currently happening, she says. So far there is no concrete evidence of planning for looting like in France.

Brandenburg's Interior Minister Jan Redmann (CDU) referred to calls particularly from the left-wing radical scene. Halloween was deliberately chosen for this purpose - a day on which people mask themselves and, "under the protection of the masquerade", have already committed bodily harm and damage to property in the past. He spoke of a deliberate attempt to bring French conditions to Germany.

Apparently there are also concerns among the organizers themselves. The Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that the federal spokesman for the “Gen Z regulates” movement has resigned. In a statement on social networks, he explained: Due to the many actors who have come together in the alliance, he sees "a common, peaceful framework" for the protests as "no longer adequately secured."

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Business associations have written a letter to Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU). They fear negative effects on city centers and retail. A current assessment of the situation regarding the protests in France comes to the conclusion that operational disruptions due to blockades and gatherings must also be expected in this country, according to the non-public letter that is available to the dpa news agency.

The authors of the letter are the German Retail Association (HDE), the real estate industry association ZIA and the retail real estate industry association GCSP. “Particularly worrying is the assessment that attacks on commercial establishments, especially retail stores and shopping centers, through property damage, vandalism or looting cannot be ruled out,” it says. They are calling for a strong police presence at the protests. In many federal states, Reformation Day is not a public holiday and shops remain open.

Not only France - there were protests again in many other countries too. more

On its website, "Gen Z regulates" makes it clear: "Our protest is peaceful, without exception. Violence against people or things contradicts everything we stand for. We can only achieve something together peacefully." There are also other voices on social media. "While German-made bombs are being thrown at schools in other countries, people in this country are discussing whether and how bad it would be if a Gucci store were expropriated by the masses," says a post on an Instagram account called "genzregelt" with more than 9,000 followers. “Do not promote the narrative of a division between peaceful and violent demonstrators.”

Gen Z is a generic term for an age cohort that is not clearly defined. The US research institute Pew Research Center uses the term to record people who were born after 1996, and the Federal Agency for Civic Education uses it to record those born between 1995 and 2010. What they have in common is that they grew up with digital media and have no memory of a world without smartphones, writes Pew.

This topic in the program: RBB24 Inforadio | News | Oct 28, 2026 | 06:24 a.m. NDR television | Hello Lower Saxony | Oct 28, 2026 | 7:30 p.m