Europe Is Protesting Everywhere, but Not About the Same Thing
A school revolt turns into France's worst unrest in years
October 17: half a million march, cities burn after dark
Macron promises answers as 70,000 police deploy
President Emmanuel Macron condemned the violence but said he understood young people's anxieties, vowing concrete measures and a meeting with protesters. Scrutiny of riot policing intensified after a 15-year-old lost a hand during a protest in Lens on October 5; the interior minister suspended the use of stun grenades at school demonstrations. On October 24, more than 70,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed ahead of a second Saturday of protests, and the CGT has called a nationwide strike day for November 5. U.S. President Donald Trump seized on the disorder to blame immigration and demand France close its borders, a claim French student leaders reject.
Portugal: rents double, tents cleared before dawn
In Portugal the trigger is housing. Purchase prices more than doubled between 2015 and 2024, rising roughly twice as fast as the EU average, while rents on new leases have nearly doubled since 2017. Before dawn on October 20, police cleared protest camps in Lisbon's Rossio square, where activists had pitched around 200 tents, and in Porto's Dom João I square, occupied for about 10 days, arresting 55 people. Thousands of demonstrators returned to both squares that evening, vowing to press on against what they call one of Europe's worst affordability crises.
Spain: a wheelchair user's eviction becomes a national symbol
Italy, Albania and Serbia write their own scripts
In Italy, about 10,000 people demonstrated over low wages and living costs; Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ordered 500 soldiers to patrol Milan through year's end, declaring that protest is a right but destroying cities is not. Clashes in Bologna saw a giant photograph of Meloni set alight. In Tirana, anti-government protests now in their second week swelled as high-school and university students joined the "Flamingo" movement demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama's resignation. Serbia held a snap parliamentary election as a student-led movement born from the November 2024 Novi Sad station canopy collapse that killed 16 people challenged the ruling party, with polls at 47 percent against 40 percent for the students' list.
