Protests sweep across Europe from France to Albania, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

NEW: Anti-austerity protests sweep across Europe, spreading from France to Italy, Spain, Portugal and Albania, with police and soldiers deployed across capitals after last week's violence.

Anti-austerity protests are now spreading across five European countries at once.

What began in France has moved to Italy, Spain, Portugal and Albania, with police and soldiers deployed in capitals across the continent after last week's violence. In Paris, hundreds of thousands marched against the rising cost of living, and you can see the scale of those crowds here.

Rome has young protesters clashing with police in the streets, days after the government put soldiers on patrol. In Brussels, shopkeepers are boarding up their windows, afraid of a repeat of last week's looting. Governments are treating this weekend as a security operation as much as a political problem.

The movement crossed four borders in a week. If austerity is the grievance, no single capital can answer it alone, and every government in Europe knows the next march could be theirs.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.