ROME: From blockaded schools in Rome to tent camps in Madrid and street protests in France, young people across Europe are turning their anger on a political class they say is not listening.
Their demands vary, but they are united in wanting to make their often marginalised voices heard, sometimes even with radical methods in the face of heavy-handed policing.
“We are fighting and taking our future in our hands,” said Damiano Fusa, 18, a student at Rome’s Cavour high school, the first to be occupied in a wave of student takeovers that has spread across the Italian capital.
“We’re not represented by anyone,” Fusa said, criticising both Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right coalition and previous centre-left governments for cutting education funding and ignoring young people’s needs.
Hundreds of thousands of high school and university students have rallied in France, Italy, Spain and other European countries in recent weeks, with some protests descending into violence.
Governments have largely focused on restoring order, with France imposing partial curfews and Italy deploying soldiers, responses protesters say obscure their demands and could make things even worse.
“Politicians are responding in ways that are completely disconnected from reality, completely absurd,” said Luis Marques, a 19-year-old psychology student in Lisbon.
Students are demanding action on soaring rents, more spending on education instead of defence and more job opportunities for young people.
But experts say the unrest reflects a broader sense among many young Europeans that they have been shut out of politics and sidelined.
“These young people do not just feel like they do not have a place in politics, they feel they are not being heard at all,” said Geoffrey Pleyers, president of the International Sociological Association.
Rosario Forlenza, a professor at Rome’s Luiss University, called it a “European generational revolt” rooted in a social and economic crisis “to which politicians cannot give a substantive response”.
“Young people are a minority of the population that is shrinking and so their social, economic, cultural, political and electoral weight is becoming ever more irrelevant,” he said.
‘Inspiring other people’
The anger has been particularly palpable in France and Italy, where fresh demonstrations are planned for Saturday.
“People are very angry, they’ve had enough. Working hard all day and still not being able to fill up their shopping cart,” a 20-year-old student who gave his name as Eddy said at a protest in Bordeaux last weekend.
“Will smashing everything change anything? I think it can be a jolt to wake up politicians. We don’t know what else to do to make ourselves heard. The ballot box? We don’t believe in it anymore,” he said.
Protest movements across Europe are increasingly drawing inspiration from one another, and even looking to youth-led movements further afield in places like Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
In Italy, one student slogan last week urged protesters to “do as in France”, while shared symbols, including the Jolly Roger pirate flag, have become common across youth rallies.
Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2026
