Paris (France) (AFP) – After France, Belgium, Spain and Italy, Germany is in turn won by the discontent of young people. A movement which is now sweeping across Europe, driven by the rising cost of living and a growing mistrust of institutions.

Published on: 02/11/2026 - 18:23

On Saturday, tens of thousands of young people took to the streets in Germany at the call of a collective called “GenZ regelt” (“Generation Z takes care of it”). The same day, several hundred thousand people also marched in France, just like the day before in the streets of Italy.

High school and university students find themselves on the front lines of these protests. In France, a movement began in mid-September to demand more resources in education (teaching positions, renovation of establishments, etc.) and to denounce a system of orientation towards university that is too opaque.

Their demands, revealing the feeling of a blocked future and social downgrading, met with a powerful response.

“It’s a European movement but France served as a catalyst,” said Sylvain Boulouque, a French historian specializing in social movements, in reference to the October 17 demonstrations.

That day, after several weeks of high school mobilization, between 550,000 (police) and 800,000 people (organizers) took to the streets.

The protests were overshadowed by looting of businesses, burning of public buildings and clashes with police in several cities.

Four days later, in Greece, more than 10,000

People demonstrated in several cities, some displaying banners in Greek and French proclaiming "Hope is in the struggle of the people."

“The problems are common to many European countries,” said one of the demonstrators, Filippos Armen, a physics student at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

"Uncertainty"

Across the continent, many are confronted with "a model that is running out of steam", analyzes Belgian sociologist Geoffrey Pleyers, specialist in social movements at the Catholic University of Louvain.

“What we offer them is at best a job, for many precarious,” he notes.

And studies do not guarantee them the standard of living of their parents due to high rents or the climate crisis.

In numerous mobilizations (Spain, Portugal, Greece, etc.), housing is "a central element" because it is closely linked to purchasing power and "an increasingly unequal distribution of wealth", underlines the researcher.

“Discontent is fueled more by uncertainty than by poverty,” the professor of political science at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Máriam Martínez-Bascuñán, recently commented on the Spanish channel RTVE, emphasizing the “contagion effect” of images of demonstrations in France and camps of activists for the right to housing in Portugal.

“Young people are acutely aware of the weight of debt and environmental problems” created by previous generations and have “the feeling of being sacrificed,” adds Sylvain Boulouque, who also teaches in a high school.

The historian also notes an unexpected impact of the ban on cell phones in French high schools: "The students began to socialize again, to look up to see how degraded their working conditions were."

In Germany, the possibility of a return to military service, in a context of rearmament and geopolitical tensions with Russia in particular, also contributed to the outcry among young people.

- Inequalities -

In several countries, this protest has crystallized other anger.

In France, students were joined by the “yellow vests”, at the origin of a resounding protest movement against the rise in the cost of living in 2018-2019. After three days of protests over the past three weeks, unions called a strike on November 5.

In Italy, truck drivers, taxi drivers and farmers, mobilized in recent weeks against soaring fuel prices, joined the demonstrations on Friday.

At the heart of the frustrations is the feeling of increased social inequalities. “Young people whose parents live comfortably have a more comfortable life and, conversely, those who come from more precarious sectors have a much more difficult life today,” underlines Geoffrey Pleyers.

Another common point of the unrest, according to the sociologist, is the feeling of not being heard, causing an increasing “distance” and “dissociation” between populations and States.

These protests come a few months before several major elections (legislative elections in Spain at the end of November, presidential elections in France, elections in Italy and Greece in 2027).

“Pre-election periods are generally not favorable for this type of movement,” notes Geoffrey Pleyers. “Generally, there is hope for a candidate, hope for an alternative.”

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© 2026 AFP

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