The wave of protests by pupils, students and their supporters has already spread from France, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Austria to Albania. Opposition is also growing in Germany, the Netherlands, Serbia and Ireland.
France: Teachers rise up in protest
It all started at the Lycée Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry in Créteil, southeast of Paris. Since mid-September, teachers there have been on strike against job cuts and chronic underfunding. Students have also joined the protest.
The demonstrations first spread to Paris and then across the country. Among the at least 550.000 people who, according to official figures, took to the streets across the country on Saturday, there were also masked people who resorted to violence. In several cities, shops were looted and cars and garbage cans were set on fire. In the city of Limoges, the town hall, a building from 1883, was burned down.
According to official figures, 1800 people were arrested and more than 500 police and firefighters were injured. As a result of the unrest, the government announced the imposition of local curfews.
Belgium: Study fees increase
The protests in France also spread to Belgium. After the school closures on October 1 in Liège, unions called for a nationwide day of strikes and a major demonstration in the capital, Brussels, on October 9.
Other rallies in these two Belgian cities, during which there were violent clashes between young people and police forces, took place on October 12 and 17. The protests were directed, among other things, against the government’s austerity programs, which have announced cuts of around ten billion euros. This includes cuts of 500 million euros by 2029 in the French-speaking education system. An increase in tuition fees and the abolition of free bus tickets for young people are also planned.
Italy: Looting and barricades on fire
In Italy, on Saturday (17.10.), during a protest against wars and inflation in Milan, there were clashes with the police. Masked demonstrators looted shops, threw cobblestones at special police forces and set fire to barricades they had set up.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, of the center-left, told local media: “The reasons for the protests were understandable. However, the violence against the police and the serious damage caused to the city cannot be justified.”
Portugal: Property prices increase drastically
In Portugal, tens of thousands of people also demonstrated against rising living costs and the housing market crisis. Many people can no longer afford the ever-increasing rents.
According to a European Commission report published in June this year, property prices in the country have increased nominally by 130 percent since 2013. Meanwhile, rents for new contracts have increased by 10,2 percent compared to a year earlier, according to Portugal’s National Statistics Office.
Spain: Protest in Puerta del Sol Square
Spain’s housing crisis is also severe. Public anger over sky-high rents was heightened in September by the case of an 87-year-old pensioner. After a years-long legal battle, Maricarmen Abascal was forced to leave her Madrid apartment, where she had lived for 70 years, on September 23. She could no longer pay the rent from her pension, which an investor had increased by 275 percent.
A few days after the eviction, an agreement was reached under which the pensioner could return to the apartment and pay a rent that would not exceed 30 percent of her income. But Maricarmen, who the Spanish knew simply by her first name, died on October 7, just two weeks after being evicted.
Since then, hundreds of people have occupied Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square to protest against rising housing costs.
Why is “Generation Z” protesting in Albania?
In the Albanian capital, Tirana, thousands of people have been taking to the streets for months. The protests have their origins in the so-called “Flamingo” movement, which was created in opposition to a major luxury tourism project on Albania’s southern coast.
Meanwhile, the protests have turned into an anti-government movement, demanding the resignation of Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama. Students are also taking to the streets because of the high costs of education and the lack of professional prospects. On Saturday, protesters threw stones, Molotov cocktails, flares and pyrotechnic devices at the police, who responded with tear gas, water cannons and batons.
Greece: Tent camp in front of parliament
The protests in Greece are somewhat smaller. On October 13, students from several higher education institutions in Athens set up a tent camp in front of parliament. According to media reports, the organizers explicitly referred to the protests in France and Spain.
For October 21, teachers’ unions, students, administration employees, and parents’ associations have called for a nationwide strike and demonstrations in dozens of cities.
Austria: Universities mobilize
In Austria, universities have been mobilized. On October 13, according to the student union ÖH, around 6000 students, lecturers and researchers took to the streets to protest against possible cuts to university budgets. They warned of overcrowded lecture halls, fewer teaching staff, social exclusion and cuts to research and infrastructure.
Previously, the ÖH had collected 60.000 signatures for an online petition titled “Save the universities – No to university cuts.” The reason is the potential savings of around one billion euros in the next three-year budget for higher education.
Serbia has been gripped by ongoing student protests for almost two years. The cause was the collapse of a railway station shelter in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad, which killed 16 people. Since then, students have mobilized across the country against corruption under the ruling Serbian Progressive Party.
President Aleksandar Vučić, who governs in a semi-autocratic manner, has called early elections for October 25. He aims to consolidate his power, while the student movement hopes for political change.