Classrooms with mouldy walls, riddled with cockroaches and rats, stifling in summer and freezing in winter: this is how high school students in poorer urban areas of France describe the places where they’re meant to learn. These impossible-to-ignore symbols of underfunding and neglect sparked a protest movement that has shaken the country.

It began in Créteil, a suburb of Paris, at the start of the school year. On 21 September, a few days after a teachers’ strike, students at a high school organised their own protest, blocking the building’s entrance. Students at other local schools quickly did the same. On 29 September, the movement went national when the Union Syndicale Lycéenne, a high school students’ union, called for blockades at every high school. As 15- to 18-year-olds walked out of hundreds of schools, a new protest movement was born.

Students’ complaints centre on underfunding, teacher shortages, crumbling infrastructure, crowded classrooms, long school days and an opaque university admissions system. These matter in their own right and also raise broader questions about whose interests economies and governments serve, and what futures people can look forward to.

The high school protests struck a chord. University students quickly joined in, blockading their campuses. Within weeks, at least 250,000 people were on the streets, as teachers, trade union members, supporters of the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party and others joined the students. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg showed solidarity at a protest in Saint-Denis. The government opened a consultation platform for students, announced the release of fuel reserves to lower prices and promised policies to improve schools by the end of the month, but these limited concessions didn’t stop the protests. Meanwhile the message has spread across Europe, inspiring protests in other countries.

A continental wave

Students organised school blockades in several cities in Belgium, calling for smaller class sizes and more teachers. In Italy, thousands of students took to the streets to demand increased education funding, better school buildings and the dropping of new rules capping the number of foreign-born students in classes. In Milan, thousands protested against the high cost of living. Some protests ended in violent clashes, including in Turin.

At the same time, in Spain, the crisis of unaffordable housing has brought nationwide protests, with many young people at the forefront. The trigger was the eviction, on 23 September, of 87-year-old María del Carmen Abascal, known as Maricarmen, from the Madrid apartment that had been her home for over seven decades, after the investment firm that bought her building pushed the rent up by over 230 per cent. Thousands took to the streets of Madrid, and the city’s Puerta del Sol square filled with over 1,200 protesters’ tents. Weeks of protests followed in public squares across the country. After right-wing parties blocked emergency housing legislation, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap election. Maricarmen died two weeks after being evicted.

In Portugal, thousands camped out in public squares in Lisbon and Porto to protest at unaffordable housing. They called on the centre-right government to withdraw a draft law that would make it easier for landlords to evict tenants and end rent caps on new leases. In Greece, students protested in Athens against high student rents and the lack of affordable housing, and demanded more investment in education.

Protests have resurged in Albania. They were initially triggered by the government approving a luxury tourism development linked to the Trump family, a decision that unleashed discontent over unaccountable politicians, oligarchical power and corruption. France’s protests gave the movement fresh impetus, with students mobilising against high education costs, poor university conditions and limited job prospects. In recent protests, tens of thousands have taken to the streets to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, leading to violent clashes between police and protesters.

The precise triggers and demands of protest movements vary from country to country, but the movements speak to a shared understanding among many young people that they aren’t being heard and that growing economic difficulties aren’t being addressed.

Roots of a generational revolt

What happened in France and other European countries in September and October is part of a broader global pattern that’s emerged in recent years. Young people expect few opportunities in economies that fail almost everyone but the super-wealthy. They see bad public services get worse, including their schools and universities, while the cost of essentials soars, driven by the climate crisis and needless conflicts pursued by unaccountable politicians.

When young people leave education they enter an impossible job market and face handing over ever-increasing shares of what they earn in rent. Those who can’t afford rent stay stuck in their parents’ homes, unable to live independently. A housing crisis that has been bubbling up in the background for years has now become a mainstream issue in many countries. Private sector interests have turned what should be treated as a necessity into an object of financial speculation. Corporate landlords seek to extract as much rent as the market can bear, while in countries such as Italy and Spain, under-regulated short-term tourist lets put further pressure on housing supply. They use their lobbying power to water down policies to control rents and limit evictions.

Many people view governments as not having answers to the high cost of living, unaffordable housing and precarious employment. In France, as elsewhere, the current plan is more economic austerity, which will further increase inequality. Established centre-right and centre-left parties are widely seen as differing little on the fundamentals, offering not much more than cosmetic solutions.

At the same time, young people around the world have seen the power of self-organising. Gen Z-led protest movements have arisen in many countries, motivated by anger at economic failures, corruption and unaccountable political power. In 2024, young people rose up in Kenya against a planned tax rise that would have pushed up the cost of essentials. They inspired protests in other African countries. In Bangladesh, young people protesting against a quota that restricted entry to public sector jobs toppled an authoritarian government and restored democratic rule.

In 2025, a ban on 26 social media platforms showed young people in Nepal how out of touch their government was. Their protests ousted the prime minister, paving the way for an election that brought democratic change. This year, India’s Gen Z-led cockroach movement, born in response to a political insult, secured the resignation of the education minister over exam leaks. It’s now protesting against unfair changes to the electoral roll that are disenfranchising millions.

Since 2025, Gen Z-led movements have arisen in countries as diverse as Bulgaria, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexico, Morocco, North Macedonia, Peru, the Philippines, Serbia, Timor-Leste, Togo and Vietnam, among others. The movements share remarkably similar characteristics. They practise internal democracy and have many leaders, and they share inspiration, tactics and symbols across borders. Because many from other generations share the same anger at economic and political failings, movements often broaden their support beyond their origins, connecting with established groups and organisations, while Gen Z remains at their heart, driving them forward.

Repression and political opportunism

Because they question the distribution of economic and political power, Gen Z-led protests have invariably been met with state violence. French authorities have a long and infamous track record of unleashing violent riot police against protests, and this time has been no different, even though many of those involved are children.

Amnesty International has tracked the police use of batons, teargas and mass arrests, including against children. Police have detained thousands of under-18s, with reports of officers hitting, verbally insulting and racially abusing people in detention. On 7 October, amid public outrage, the interior minister was forced to suspend the police’s use of stun grenades after a 15-year-old boy in the city of Lens lost a hand. A 16-year-old boy in Tours lost the sight of one eye after being hit by a police flash ball. The state’s violence has prompted some parents to protest alongside their children, and at times, lawyers and LFI politicians have put their bodies on the line, stepping between protesters and police and forming human chains to try to stop people getting hurt.

Protesters have mobilised overwhelmingly peacefully, apart from isolated acts of vandalism. But cost-of-living protests joined by hundreds of thousands over the weekend of 17 and 18 October, including students, trade union members and people from the gilets jaunes protest movement, ended in much more significant violence. Rioting, looting and destruction of property took place in several cities, and authorities imposed curfews. In recent years, seemingly any large-scale protest in France, and even sporting celebrations, has descended into violence, with ‘black bloc’ anarchist groups taking the opportunity to run amok and some people exploiting unrest to loot businesses.

With a presidential election due next April, politicians without solutions have been quick to capitalise on the violence. Government spokespeople sought to blame LFI, which polls suggest could make it into the presidential runoff vote. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who currently tops the polls and is almost certain to make the runoff, has sought to present herself as a president in waiting, pledging to restore law and order. She blames both the violence and the high cost of living on what she calls ‘anarchic immigration’, exploiting the fact that the poorest schools are in urban areas with proportionately more Black and Brown people, and so are some of the biggest protests.

Polls show a majority of French people have backed the protests, but they also suggest Le Pen has gained some support, with the recent violence a likely factor. She’s had the vocal backing of enemies of democracy of all stripes, from Donald Trump to the Russian government, who’ve been quick to join her in blaming the violence on immigration. In the days following the violence in France, far-right politicians across Europe followed Le Pen in seeking to exploit it.

Protesters don’t want a far-right victory, and if France or any other country where young people are mobilising shifts further to the right, the blame won’t lie with them. Public anger that demands disruption and seeks to punish elites can be channelled towards far-right populist and nationalist ends when no alternatives are on offer. Economic failures and politics that make nothing better, in countries with large Gen Z populations, all but guarantee further mass protests. The political establishment must start listening and offer a more positive response.

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