SINGAPORE: Youth-led protests have swept across Europe in recent weeks, with Germany becoming the latest flashpoint on Saturday (Oct 31), as demonstrators demand better public services, affordable living and greater investment in their future.
Some have descended into violence, with shops looted, buildings vandalised and protesters clashing with police.
CNA looks at why protests are breaking out across Europe, if they are connected and what risks they pose.
Where are the protests happening and why?
In Germany, a youth initiative called GenZ regelt, or “Gen Z has got this” in English, held demonstrations in more than 30 cities on Saturday.
The group wrote on its website that it is protesting for greater investment in education, social security, health, climate protection, and a more affordable lifestyle, while opposing any return to compulsory military service.
GenZ regelt said that around 120,000 people took part in the demonstrations.
One of the protesters, Janelle Schulz, said that more money should be invested in education.
“At my school, the ceiling is collapsing because of water damage, nothing is being done about it, we have a shortage of teachers, the toilets are broken,” the high school student from Berlin told AP.
In France, demonstrations began in mid-September over worsening school conditions, teacher shortages and dissatisfaction with the university admissions system.
According to American think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the movement began with a teachers’ strike at a high school in Creteil, near Paris, before spreading nationwide, affecting more than 1,000 high schools and drawing hundreds of thousands of protesters.
The protests soon expanded, touching on the rising cost of living, public services and President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership, drawing support from trade unions and the Yellow Vests movement.
On Oct 17, demonstrations involving an estimated 550,000 people deteriorated into some of France’s worst rioting in years, AP reported.
Demonstrations continued on Saturday, drawing around 320,000 people nationwide, with more than 560 arrests reported by night.
Among the protesters was 21-year-old student Corentin Cabreux, who told AP that his state-run student residence had “damp stains all along the bottom of my walls, whole sections peeling off, cockroaches everywhere, rats”.
CFR research associate Rafaela Uzan highlighted a generational divide, with many young people feeling that the French government prioritises older generations despite high youth unemployment and mounting pressures on education.
In Spain, housing affordability has emerged as a central grievance.
The eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her longtime Madrid home in September, after a sharp rent increase, sparked nationwide outrage.
Protesters have called for rents to be frozen, a halt to evictions involving vulnerable people and tighter regulation of short-term and room rentals, according to The Guardian.
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