Paris (France) (AFP) - After France, Belgium, Spain and Italy, the wave of youth anger has moved to Germany, in a movement that has now spread throughout Europe, driven by growing discontent with the rising costs of living and growing mistrust in institutions.

Published on: 02/11/2026 - 20:11

On Saturday, tens of thousands of young people took to the streets in Germany, in response to a call launched by a group called “Gen Z Reglet” (Generation Z is taking over). On the same day, hundreds of thousands participated in marches in France, as happened in Italy a day earlier.

High school and college students are at the forefront of these protests. In France, a youth protest movement has been launched since mid-September to demand more resources for the education sector (such as increasing the number of teachers, renovating educational facilities...) and to denounce the university guidance system, which is extremely ambiguous.

Their demands, through which they express their distress about the blockage of the future horizon and the decline in social status, have received a wide and strong echo.

Sylvain Pollock, a French historian specializing in social movements, believes that “this is a European movement, but France was its catalyst,” referring to the demonstrations that the country witnessed on October 17.

On that day, after weeks of student movement in high schools, between 550,000 (according to the police) and 800,000 people (according to the organizers) took to the streets.

These demonstrations were overshadowed by violence that included looting of stores, setting fire to public buildings, and clashes with police in several cities.

Four days later, Greece witnessed the emergence of more than 10,000 people in demonstrations that spread across several cities, some of whom raised banners in Greek and French that read, “Hope lies in the struggle of peoples.” One of the demonstrators, Philippos Armen, a physics student at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, confirmed that “these problems are common to several European countries.”

Return to social interaction

Belgian sociologist Geoffrey Blairs, a specialist in social movements at the Catholic University of Louvain, believes that many on the European continent are facing a “model that has reached a dead end.”

He explains that "the most they are offered is a job, and it is often unstable."

Also, academic degrees no longer guarantee them the standard of living that their parents enjoyed, due to rising rents and the climate crisis.

The researcher confirms that housing represents a “central element” in many protest movements (in Spain, Portugal, Greece, and others), due to its close connection to purchasing power and “the increasingly unequal distribution of wealth.”

In a recent statement she made to the Spanish channel RTVE, Mariam Martinez-Basconian, a professor of political science at the Autonomous University of Madrid, explained that “a state of uncertainty fuels discontent more than poverty does.”

She pointed out that the images of protests in France and the camps of activists demanding the right to housing in Portugal constituted a catalyst for similar movements in other European countries.

Sylvain Pollock, a historian and high school teacher, explains that “young people are acutely aware of the burden of debt and environmental problems” left behind by previous generations, and they have a “feeling of victimhood.”

The historian also points out an unexpected impact of the decision to ban mobile phones in French secondary schools, saying, "The students returned to direct social interaction, and raised their heads to realize the extent of the deterioration of their academic conditions."

In Germany, the possibility of re-imposing military service, as the country moves towards rearmament and the escalation of geopolitical tensions, especially with Russia, has contributed to raising a wave of strong objections among young people.

Growing disparities

These protests fueled already existing feelings of anger among different groups in local communities.

In France, “yellow vest” activists who led a large-scale protest movement against rising costs of living in 2018 and 2019 joined the student demonstrators. After three rounds of demonstrations over the past three weeks, unions called for a general strike on November 5.

In Italy, truck drivers, taxi drivers and farmers who have moved in recent weeks to protest the skyrocketing fuel prices joined the demonstrations on Friday.

The exacerbation of social inequalities is central to this state of frustration.

Jeffrey Blairs points out that "young people whose parents enjoy a comfortable situation also enjoy more comfortable lives, while those who come from more vulnerable backgrounds face much more difficult life circumstances at the present time."

The sociologist believes that there is another common factor that fuels this discontent, which is the feeling that decision-makers ignore the demands, which leads to a widening “gap” and growing “separation” between peoples and countries.

These protests come a few months before major electoral elections, such as legislative elections in Spain at the end of November, presidential elections in France in the spring of 2027, and elections in Italy and Greece next year.

Jeffrey Blairs notes that “the periods leading up to elections are usually not suitable for this type of movement, as hope is often placed on a candidate or potential alternative.”

© 2026 AFP

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