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From Milan to Marseille to Madrid and many other European cities, the streets have erupted in loud and passionate protests in recent weeks. While most protests begin peacefully, a fair number end in shocking scenes of violence and looting. There have been accusations that far-left groups deliberately incited riots, and there have been reports of police overreach.
We saw thousands of people taking to the streets of Rome and Florence, with hundreds of thousands participating across France. In Madrid, a tent camp has occupied a central square since late September. In Lisbon, tens of thousands of people - mostly young - took to the streets earlier this month. In Brussels, young men dressed in black and masked to hide their identities threw rocks and firecrackers at police, who then used tear gas and water cannons against protesters. In Albania, demonstrators who accuse the government of corruption are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has been in power for 13 years.
The continent is socially and politically turbulent.
I spent many years reporting in Europe and covered countless demonstrations, both peaceful and violent. I clearly remember the enthusiastic Catalan independence marches in 2017, the despair and petrol bombs flying in the streets of Athens during the Greek debt crisis in 2015, and the many violent incidents triggered by fuel taxes and pension reform plans during French President Emmanuel Macron’s first term.
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But this time it feels different. Protests broke out simultaneously across Europe, and most of the demonstrators - both peaceful and violent - were young people, some very, very young. Among those arrested, the number of minors is alarming. More than half of those detained during last weekend's clashes in Barcelona were under the age of 18. According to the Italian LaPresse news agency, minors were also among those arrested by the police after the clashes in Milan.
European governments have mostly been careful to distinguish looters and rioters from loud but peaceful, legally organized demonstrations. The latter often revolves around a specific appeal. In the current wave of protests, banners and slogans have focused on education issues, social inequality and the rising cost of living - although each country has its own unique grievances.
What is it that so quickly ignited the public outrage among European youth? Are these demonstrations intertwined in some way? As major elections in Europe approach, how will governments choose to respond - listen to the demands of protesters, or play the "law and order" card to win over older voters?
The “TikTokization” of protest
Students took to the streets in France, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Serbia and Albania - more than 1,000 miles across the continent.
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Demonstrations are often organized on an ad hoc basis via TikTok or Instagram. The Belgian interior minister complained about what he called "TikTokisation" in the protests.
Students' unions play a role in organizing the marches, but the actions are also inspired by their peers in other countries and even other continents. Consider India’s so-called “Cockroach” student movement—a Gen Z sociopolitical protest movement that emerged in May this year, initially stemming from criticism of India’s education system.
France is a prominent catalyst in Europe. The current wave of student protests began in France in late September, sparked by complaints about teacher shortages and dilapidated school buildings. There is a saying in neighboring Belgium: If it rains heavily in Paris, it will at least rain lightly in Brussels. Today, the Belgian capital and the city of Liège have also seen protests by young people for several weeks.
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In Barcelona this weekend, students were encouraged to stage demonstrations under the social media hashtag #InstitutsIndignats, echoing the French slogan "Lycées Indignés" (angry secondary schools).
In Athens, 17-year-old Greek middle school student Yiannis Papanikolaou told AFP: "The school buildings are in a terrible state and poorly maintained... I think that may change because what France is doing will inspire Greece."
Stagnation and affordability concerns
There is an economic predicament that permeates the continent and affects many young people, and it goes far beyond education. They worry about environmental issues and that artificial intelligence will take away their jobs. They fear that soaring living costs will prevent them from completing their studies or affording or renting a home large enough to raise a family.
In Madrid and Lisbon, anger has focused on prohibitively high housing prices. Portugal's Instagram-linked movement declares "enough is enough" and calls on people to take to the streets like their counterparts in Spain.
In Lisbon, Carolina Cruz, a 26-year-old doctoral student and biology researcher, said she faced losing her place as her lease was about to expire. "I was the first in my family to study for a PhD, but even after reading so much, I just couldn't get through it," she told Reuters.
This anger is shared by Riccardo, 22, a protester in Milan, Italy's financial capital. "Even if we can't mess up the country like France or block every road like Spain, at least the goal is to get people talking about these issues again," he told AFP.
And it’s not just young people on the political left who are angry. Young supporters at the launch of French nationalist Marine Le Pen's presidential campaign last weekend described different concerns to me.
The self-proclaimed "silent majority" (who have not yet taken to the streets to demonstrate) say they are also deeply worried about "uncontrolled immigration", safety on French streets and the cost of living.
Crisis overlap
The outburst of discontent is no longer limited to young people, but has spread to trade unions, France's "yellow vests" movement (which protested the cost of living crisis during Macron's first term) and other citizen actions. This weekend, there were two protests in Kent, on the southern coast of England, one in support of immigration and one against immigration.
This diverse mix of protests can be confusing.
Mark Leonard, director of the European Council of Foreign Relations, said Europe is accumulating a series of competing crises, none of which have been properly resolved. That pent-up anger is now spilling onto the streets.
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"Crisis after crisis," he told me. "The financial crisis of 2007-08, the immigration crisis of 2015, the environmental crisis, COVID-19, inflation after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and now the war in the Persian Gulf."
Leonard said these crises gave rise to different "tribes." Social media consumption patterns and algorithms reinforce their differing views, leading to a real sense of polarization in Europe.
"We've seen this in the United States," Leonard said. "That 'my crisis is more important than your crisis' mentality."
Nathalie Tocci, a former adviser to the Italian government and now a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, told me that we shouldn’t be so surprised by these protests or that young people are participating in them.
“We tend to think of young people as politically apathetic and uninterested. We think they’re too lazy to go out to vote and so on, but they are really engaged,” she told me, “just in a different, more grassroots way. Think of the ‘Fridays for the Future’ environmental movement that swept Europe a few years ago, or the demonstrations against Israel’s actions in Gaza after October 7.”
She pointed to Serbia's student-led protest movement, which defeated long-time leader Aleksandar Vučić in recent parliamentary elections. "It's quite remarkable. They persisted and lasted for more than two years. What staying power will these new European street demonstrations have? It's not clear yet."
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What about the robbery and violence?
French and Belgian intelligence services have described looting on the fringes of legally sanctioned protests as largely opportunistic.
They believe the riots were a mixture of "mindless violence" - a term also used by Spanish authorities to describe weekend clashes in Barcelona - and deliberate chaos orchestrated by youths from far-left radical groups.
Torci reminded me that in Italy, some Italians dissatisfied with vandals can be heard using the word "maranza," referring to those who seem to vandalize purely for the sake of vandalism, such as smashing or burning cars or public trash cans.
In France, rioters are often called "casseurs" - people who smash things. But in private, some people use a more political word - "racaille." Like the Italian "maranza," it is derogatory slang often used to describe disaffected, rowdy urban youth, often from working-class or immigrant backgrounds. In October 2005, then-French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy used the word to describe young delinquents and rioters during a tense visit to a low-rent housing community in Argenteuil, a suburb of Paris.
French media have also raised the question of whether there is some alliance of interests, however informal or casual, between two groups of young people - far-left activists and young people from France's poorer neighborhoods. Like the anti-capitalist left, young people from public housing communities on the outskirts of French cities, known as "banlieues", often feel discriminated against and complain that police officers are disproportionately targeting them.
France's political right and center, including Macron, have accused left-wing radical groups and "undesirable elements" of planning the unrest. Unlike Le Pen's National Rally Party, they did not mention a link between the unrest and past or current influxes of immigrants into France.
Critics accuse Europe's anti-immigration parties of trying to exploit the unrest for political gain. In Belgium, the anti-immigration opposition party Vlaams Belang, a Flemish nationalist party, appeared to blame migrants for the violence in Liege and Brussels, saying the unrest was "imported" and blaming the failure of integration policies and open borders. Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quentin pointed the finger at far-left groups.
An ongoing movement?
France and Italy set for new mass demonstrations in coming days
Governments are trying to combat the violence. Thousands of people have been arrested, and Italy and France have pledged a "if you damage, you pay" policy to rioters.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also wants to make parents of minors liable for losses caused by their children, including deducting the welfare benefits the family receives. France's Civil Code has long stipulated that parents who live with their children must be liable for damage caused by their children.
But some of these European governments may not be in power for long. All major EU countries have held or will hold key elections in the coming months. France's presidential election is considered the most critical for Europe. Le Pen continues to lead her opponents by a wide margin in the polls. She is believed to be aided by unrest on the streets of France, in part due to her party's "law and order" stance.
In Spain, Italy, Germany and Poland, nationalist, hard-line parties on immigration are also polling well. These parties promised to restore order and national pride. Leonard believes that populist or non-traditional parties on the left and right have become "crisis entrepreneurs", taking advantage of Europe's turbulent situation to attract disaffected voters.
At the same time, the political mainstream in Europe is facing a leadership crisis, said Grégoire Roos, director of the Europe program at Chatham House.
I think they also face a crisis of legitimacy. The fact that so many people - young and not so young - took to the streets to protest shows their failure to take control of the situation.
But it is not at all clear whether new elections can resolve public dissatisfaction. France, for example, has become so polarized that if Le Pen is elected president, many predict her opponents will fill the French streets in anger.
Modern Europe is built on the assumption that citizens pay taxes and obey the law. In exchange, they receive good public services such as education and health care, personal security, and a stable society that follows certain rules and regulations.
But Roos said this "social contract" has clearly been eroded.
Looking at the unrest on the streets of Europe, it seems likely that this moment of protest will continue.
This article was originally written in English. We used artificial intelligence to assist in translation and was reviewed by BBC journalists before publication. Learn more about how we use artificial intelligence.
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