The youth rebellion spreads across Europe and sets off alarm bells

PARIS.– Barricades of garbage bins outside Parisian schools, tents at the Puerta del Sol, broken shop windows in Liège, occupied schools in Turin, backpacks in protest against military service in Berlin: this early autumn, European youth is in the streets. Each country has its own motives, but a single cry crosses borders: "Sacrificed youth, condemned future." The slogan crossed the Alps in Italian: "Facciamo come in Francia," let's do like France. The phrase sums up the strange contagion of recent weeks. Born in the schools and lycées of the Paris region in mid-September, the French movement served as a spark, or a mirror, for an indignation already brewing elsewhere. In France, the indignation was born in the classrooms. Students denounce classes of 30 to 35 pupils, absent teachers who are never replaced, school days from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., unsanitary buildings that become suffocating during heat waves, and Parcoursup, the higher education admissions platform, the object of all their hatred. French students march in Paris demanding improvements to the system JULIEN DE ROSA - AFPWithin days, the movement reached a magnitude not seen in 30 years. On October 6, between 256,000 and 450,000 people marched, and nearly 900 schools suspended classes. The protest also led to clashes: more than 6,600 arrests (nearly 90% of those detained were minors), 215 students and more than 700 police officers and gendarmes injured, and a 15-year-old student who lost a hand to a grenade in the city of Lens. The government of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu alternated firmness with an outstretched hand, while denouncing a "maneuver" by the far-left party La France Insoumise (LFI), led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and the ultra-guerrillas, something LFI denies. It also suspended the use of stun grenades, opened an online consultation, and promised 3,000 substitute teachers immediately for the schools most in need. Another series of measures is expected to be announced at the end of October. Across the Atlantic, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights declared itself "concerned," calling for proportionate use of force. The students, for their part, called a new demonstration for October 13. Protests in BelgiumOn the other side of the Pyrenees, in Spain, the indignation comes not primarily from the schools, but from housing. The spark was the eviction, at the end of September, of Maricarmen, 87 years old, forced to leave an apartment she had rented for more than 70 years. Since then, tents have sprung up at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, as in the days of the Indignados of 2011. On October 3, demonstrations were held in 54 cities. In Madrid, the prefecture counted 70,000 people, while organizers estimated 500,000. In Barcelona, the demonstration turned into fires and arrests. Protest in Madrid against the housing situation, with Maricarmen's name as a symbol and banner THOMAS COEX - AFPThe problem is structural: rents have risen almost 90% in ten years, Madrid has barely 10,000 social housing units for 3.5 million inhabitants. Spain built 260,000 homes a year in the 1990s compared to 92,000 in 2025. Spanish young people are the latest to leave the family home in Europe. The country, economists warn, is becoming "a society of heirs." However, education is not absent from the protest either. In Madrid, teachers, students and parents are preparing an indefinite strike starting October 14 under the slogan "Teachers are missing, cuts abound." They demand reducing the high school ratio from 35 to 23 students per class, as well as air-conditioned classrooms. The target is regional: it is the conservative government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in the Community of Madrid, that sees the green tide of teachers arriving at its doors. Stalled responsesThe political response is stalled. In Congress, the right (PP and Vox) and the Catalan separatists of Junts voted down two housing decrees by Pedro Sánchez's government, which provided, among other things, rent caps. Faced with the deadlock, the prime minister decided to call early elections for November 29, not before announcing his intention to present two new pieces of legislation, hoping to get them approved before the vote. The unions, for their part, called a general strike for November 11. Meanwhile, the Spanish economy shows growth three times higher than the European average, a paradox that makes the indignation even more intense. Belgian demonstrators clash with police in the streets of LiègeJonas Roosens - Belga DPABut nowhere was the mirror effect caused by France as evident as in French-speaking Belgium. On October 1, "in step with the movement of the French lycées," students in Liège blocked their schools. They threw stones at shop windows and set bus shelters on fire. The wave spread to Brussels, Mons and Verviers. The reasons for protest are similar to those in Paris: lack of teacher replacements and classrooms overcrowded by the two additional hours of class imposed on teachers. Added to this are local demands: the increase in school fees, the cost of university enrollment —raised to 1,200 euros— and the price of bus passes. "We are sacrificing an entire generation to save costs," laments the Francophone Students' Committee. As in France, the authorities denounced a possible "instrumentalization" of the movement, while the mayor of Liège banned any gathering of more than three people until October 16. On Friday, the Francophone government gave ground without abandoning austerity: 27 million euros, of which 14 will go to student support and 13 to equipping schools against the heat. On October 5, in Turin, students from the Regina Margherita and Carlo Ignazio Giulio institutes occupied their schools following the slogan that arrived from Paris. Within days, the protest spread to Rome, where the Cavour, Lattanzio and Tullio Levi Civita institutes were occupied, and later to Naples and Bologna. The students denounce leaks, broken facilities and endless construction work. They also reject the "school decree" and the limit on the number of foreign students per classroom. However, their indignation has a particular, more pacifist hue: "Stop taking money from schools to make war," proclaim the banners at Cavour. Faced with this, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni remains firm: the longest-serving government of the Italian Republic since 1945 continues with its identity agenda, with the Church acting as an unexpected arbiter in this educational crisis. On the brink of conscriptionIn Germany, youth had not waited for their French counterparts. Since December 2025, high school students have regularly walked out of their classrooms to protest against the return of compulsory military service. Since January 2026, the new military service —in principle voluntary— already requires men born from 2008 onward to complete a questionnaire and undergo an aptitude examination. If recruitment targets are not met, the Bundestag (Parliament) may reinstate conscription, suspended since 2011. On September 25, a fourth "school strike" brought together more than 45,000 young people in some 100 cities, according to the organizers. "Krieg und Krise frisst dein Leben" (war and the crisis devour your life), read numerous banners in Berlin. But Friedrich Merz's government has not yet given in. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius maintains the principle of voluntariness, although he keeps conscription as a latent option. Despite the differences, from one country to another, the same shortcomings emerge. Everywhere, public education seems exhausted: overcrowded classrooms in Paris, Madrid and Liège, lack of teachers, buildings with leaks in Rome or that become suffocating in the heat in Paris or Madrid. Everywhere, too, young people feel sacrificed on the altar of budgetary austerity, contrasting the billions allocated to defense with the precariousness of the classrooms. Finally, everywhere, social media serves both as a megaphone and as a headquarters. However, the differences are profound. In France, the students are the ones calling the shots, while in Madrid the initiative falls mainly to the teachers. The target also changes: a national government in Paris and Berlin, versus regional powers in Madrid and Brussels. The issues diverge: Parcoursup in France, housing in Spain, enrollment fees in Belgium, the war in Italy and military service in Germany. And above all, the violence is not comparable. France records thousands of arrests and injured young people, and Belgium has experienced genuine nights of rioting. Spain, Italy and Germany remain, for now, within the realm of peaceful occupation and school strikes. However, behind the lists of demands, the signs reveal something deeper. "Suffering youth," "Super-broke, super-angry," "They'd rather gas us than listen to us," could be read at the Paris demonstration on October 6. Most of the mobilized high school students were born between 2008 and 2011. They were about ten years old when the first Covid lockdown arrived, they started secondary school through a screen, and they grow up with images of Ukraine, Gaza or Sudan in their pockets. Demonstrators display banners denouncing the housing crisis in central MadridAndrea Comas - AP"Despite their youth, this generation has already witnessed numerous crises," observes Elodie Gentina, a specialist in Generation Z. In 2024, according to Santé Publique France, nearly one in five high school students showed a significant risk of depression. According to an Ipsos survey published on October 6, 84% of young people aged 18 to 29 believe it will be harder for them to find work than for their elders, and 89% think they will have to work longer to be able to retire. Added to this are eco-anxiety, artificial intelligence threatening jobs and, in Germany or Italy, the specter of a war in which they could end up being the soldiers. There is also the transnational echo, that unprecedented phenomenon that accelerates everything: videos of French police repression circulate on Roman phones, the occupations of the Cavour lycée inspire Brussels, and the Madrid camps are translated live on TikTok. In Iran, even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the French ambassador on behalf of the "repressed students," a sign that the protest has crossed the borders of Europe itself."This is the first generation since 1945 that is explicitly promised less than what their parents had: less security, less wealth, and less certainty that tomorrow will be better. They leave their parents' home later and later, postponing life —the partner, the children, the housing— like someone postponing an appointment they cannot afford," says sociologist Vincent Tiberj. The protest then ceases to be a simple list of demands and becomes something more: an act of existence, a way of shouting "here we are, take us into account." The cobblestones of Barcelona and the blockades of Créteil seem to tell the same story: the story of a youth that refuses to be an adjustment variable. European UnionFranceItaly