![[Commentary] European youth are gaining momentum through protests, what connects them?](/api/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fichef.bbci.co.uk%2Face%2Fws%2F240%2Fcpsprodpb%2F64cf%2Flive%2F0f06e8c0-d2e9-11f1-b441-2b33b063138f.jpg)
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Katya Adler Europe Editor-in-Chief
In recent weeks, colorful and passionate protests have taken place in many cities across Europe, including Milan, Italy, Marseille, France, and Madrid, Spain. Many of these started peacefully, but ended in shocking episodes of violence and looting. Suspicions have surfaced that radical left-wing groups intentionally caused the riot, while there have also been reports of excessive police response.
In Italy, large rallies were held in Rome and Florence. In France, hundreds of thousands of people gathered across the country. In Madrid, tents have occupied the city center square since late September. In October, tens of thousands of people, mostly young people, marched in Lisbon, Portugal. In Brussels, Belgium, authorities used tear gas and water cannons against demonstrators after young people dressed in black and with their faces covered threw rocks and firecrackers at police. In Albania, protesters calling for government corruption are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has been in office for 13 years.
There is currently an atmosphere of social and political instability in Europe.
I have covered many demonstrations on this continent over the years, both peaceful and violent. I vividly remember the passionate Catalan independence marches of 2017, the desperation and petrol bombs that flew through the streets of Athens during the Greek debt crisis in 2015, and the spate of violence that erupted in France during Emmanuel Macron's first term as president in the wake of his fuel tax and pension reform proposals.
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However, things are different this time. Protests are occurring simultaneously across Europe, with both peaceful and violent demonstrators, mostly young people. Some of them are really young. A surprising number of those arrested are minors. More than half of those detained in the late October clashes in Barcelona, Spain, were under the age of 18. According to Italy's La Presse news agency, several minors were among those arrested by police in Milan after the crash.
European governments have generally drawn a clear distinction between looters and rioters and raucous but peaceful, legally organized demonstrations. Legal demonstrations often involve large groups of people gathering around a specific cause. In current protests, placards and chants primarily target education issues, social inequality and the rising cost of living, but each country also has its own grievances.
Why did anger erupt so quickly and with such intensity among Europe's youth? Are the demonstrations in each country related in some way? How will governments around the world respond as general elections approach? Will the government listen to the concerns of young protesters, or will it use law and order as a shield to gain support from older people?
“TikTokization” of the protest movement
Young people took to the streets in France, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Serbia, Albania, and other parts of Europe that span more than 1,600 kilometers.
Young people's demonstrations are often organized ad hoc through social media such as TikTok and Instagram. Belgium's interior minister expressed dissatisfaction with the phenomenon, calling it the "TikTokization" of protests.
Student unions at universities and other institutions play an important role in organizing demonstration marches. But young people are also inspired by the actions of their peers in other countries and even continents. For example, the protest movement of India's Cockroach People's Party. Since May of this year, a social and political protest movement centered on Generation Z (those born after 1997) has been spreading in India, triggered by criticism of the education system.
France is a country in Europe where young people are particularly active. In late September, high school students in the country began the current wave of protests, protesting against a shortage of teachers and aging school facilities. There is a saying in neighboring Belgium: ``When it rains in Paris, it rains lightly in Brussels.'' Young people have been protesting in Brussels and Liège in recent weeks.
Image provided by EPA/Shutterstock
In Barcelona, there was a widespread call for people to take to the streets using the hashtag #InstitutsIndignats, a Spanish version of the French protest slogan "Lycées Indignés" (Indignant High Schools).
Yanis Papanikolaou, 17, a student living in Athens, told AFP news agency: "The school buildings are in a bad state and they are not well-maintained... Thanks to what France is doing, things may change. France should encourage Greece."
Stagnation and economic insecurity
Many young people are sensing the economic anxiety spreading across Europe. This is not just an educational issue. Young people are concerned about the environment and worried that artificial intelligence (AI) will take away job opportunities. They fear that the rising cost of living will prevent them from completing their education or buying or renting a house large enough to raise a family.
In Madrid and Lisbon, dissatisfaction with soaring housing prices is growing. In Portugal, a protest campaign called "Enough is Enough" began on Instagram, with organizers calling on young people in their country to take to the streets to protest like young people in Spain.
Carolina Cruz, a 26-year-old biology doctoral student living in Lisbon, is at risk of losing her home as her lease is about to expire. "I'm the first in my family to go to a doctoral program, and even though I've been studying hard, it still doesn't work out," Cruz told Reuters.
Riccardo, a 22-year-old protester in Milan, Italy's financial capital, shares the same anger. "Even if we can't go as far as to disrupt the country like in France or close all the roads like in Spain, the goal is at least to start a conversation about these issues again," Riccardo told AFP.
It's certainly not just young people on the political left who are angry. At a rally for French right-wing leader Marine Le Pen that I recently covered, young supporters voiced a variety of concerns. They call themselves the "silent majority," and although they have not yet taken part in the demonstrations, they say they are deeply concerned about "uncontrolled immigration," city security, and the rising cost of living.
overlapping crises
The outpouring of dissatisfaction has spread not only to young people but also to trade unions, France's Yellow Vest movement, which protested the rising cost of living crisis during Macron's first term, and other civic movements. Pro-immigration and anti-immigration groups held separate protests in Kent, on the southern coast of England.
The mix of these different protests may seem confusing.
Mark Leonard, head of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, says Europe is experiencing a series of cascading and competing crises, none of which have been adequately resolved. And because of that, he says, the anger that has built up is now erupting on the streets.
Image copyrightREUTERS/Valdrin Xhemaj
"There's one crisis after another," Leonard told me. "The financial crisis of 2007-2008, the migration crisis of 2015, the environmental crisis, the coronavirus, the inflation after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and now we have another crisis with the war in the Gulf."
According to Leonard, various "groups" have emerged from these crises. Social media use and algorithms are reinforcing their different viewpoints, leading to a deep sense of division in Europe.
"We're already seeing this in the United States," Leonard said. "It's a sense of, 'My crisis is more important than yours.'"
Natalie Tocci, a political science professor and former adviser to the Italian government who now teaches at Johns Hopkins University, told me that the protests and young people's participation shouldn't come as much of a surprise.
"We tend to think that young people are uninterested in politics and don't want to get involved. We may think that young people are too bothered to vote, but in reality young people are deeply involved in politics," says Professor Tocci. "We're just engaging in a different, more grassroots way. Think of the Fridays for Future movement that took place across Europe a few years ago, or the demonstrations after October 7 against Israeli actions in Gaza."
Professor Tocci also cited the example of Serbia's October general election, in which a student-led protest movement defeated long-time ruler Aleksandar Vucic.
"It's quite impressive. The students have persevered for more than two years. It remains to be seen how much staying power these new street protests across Europe will have."
Image copyrightREUTERS/Yves Herman
What about looting and violence?
French and Belgian intelligence services say the looting that has occurred around legally sanctioned protests is largely opportunistic.
The organizations said the riots were a mix of "senseless violence" and deliberate chaos caused by young people from far-left extremist groups. Spanish authorities also used the term "senseless violence" to describe the earlier clashes in Barcelona.
In the interview, Professor Tocci pointed out that in Italy, the word "maranza" is used by people who are angry at acts that seem to be aimed at destruction, such as smashing or burning cars or public trash cans.
In France, rioters are often referred to as ``casseurs'' (destroyers), although the more politically offensive term ``racaille'' (scum) is sometimes used in private conversations. Like the Italian word "maranza," it is a derogatory slang term used to refer to disaffected, boisterous young people from working-class or immigrant backgrounds who often live in urban areas. In October 2005, then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy used the term to refer to young delinquents and mobsters during a tense tour of public housing in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil.
French media have also asked whether the two groups, far-left activists and young people from impoverished areas, have conveniently joined forces, even if the relationship is informal or incidental. Young people living in public housing on the outskirts of the city, known as banlieues, often feel discriminated against and, like anti-capitalist leftists, are frustrated by the heavy-handed police response.
France's right-wing and centrist parties, including President Macron, have blamed left-wing extremist groups and "juvenile delinquents" for planning the riots. In contrast to Le Pen's RN, the centre-right has made no mention of any connection between the riots and past or present immigration to France.
Critics have accused Europe's anti-immigration parties of trying to use the riots to score political points. In Belgium, the anti-immigration nationalist party Vlames Belanf (Flemish Interests) blamed migrants for the violence in Liege and Brussels. He described the violence as "imported" and blamed the failure of integration and open border policies. Meanwhile, the country's Interior Minister Bernard Quentin has criticized far-left groups by name for these violent incidents.
A movement in progress?
Further large-scale demonstrations are planned in France and Italy.
Governments around the world are working to crack down on violence. Scores of people have been arrested so far, and Italy and France have said they will impose a "pay if you destroy property" policy on rioters.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced a plan to make parents of minors responsible for the harm their children cause. This includes reductions in welfare benefits that households receive. Under French civil law, parents who live with their children are already liable for damage caused by their children.
On the other hand, depending on the country, the current government may not last long. All major countries in the European Union (EU) are holding or planning to hold important elections in the coming months. The French presidential election is considered the most important election for Europe. Le Pen has consistently maintained a large lead over her opponents. There is speculation that the turmoil in France is working in his favor, thanks to the RN's message of security.
In Spain, Italy, Germany and Poland, nationalist parties with hard-line stances on immigration also have high approval ratings. These parties promise to restore order and foster national pride. Leonard believes that populist and non-traditional parties on the left and right have become "crisis entrepreneurs", taking advantage of Europe's turbulent situation to attract disaffected voters.
Meanwhile, Grégoire Rouss, director of Europe at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), a British think tank, points out that mainstream European politics is facing a leadership crisis.
And I would say that the mainstream is also facing a crisis of legitimacy. The fact that so many people, young and old, are participating in the protests shows that the leaders are not in control.
However, it is unclear whether the upcoming elections will resolve the public's dissatisfaction. In highly polarized France, for example, many predict that angry opposition would fill the streets of France if Le Pen became president.
Modern Europe is built on the assumption that citizens pay taxes and abide by the law. In return, citizens benefit from high-quality public services such as education and health care, personal security, and a stable society with certain rules and regulations.
But this "social contract" is clearly being undermined, Ruth says.
The current protests are likely to continue, given the fever of unrest in the streets across Europe.
(English article Europe's youth is on the march - but does anything actually unite them?)
