Arabic version: احتجاجات أوروبية تركز على المدارس والإسكان وتكاليف المعيشة
According to The Guardian, young people and other demonstrators have taken to the streets across Europe over school conditions, housing costs and the wider cost-of-living crisis. In France, high school pupils have protested long hours, missing teachers, dilapidated classrooms and an opaque university admissions system. Demonstrators also raised concerns about rising living costs and fuel prices after US bombing effectively closed the strait of Hormuz.
France’s General Confederation of Labour backed the protests, calling for lower prices, higher pensions and higher wages. Education protests began in late September, a week after the school year started, and demonstrations reached a high point on Saturday, when about half a million people joined protests over living costs and school conditions. The government said it would deploy 3,000 additional substitute teachers, involve students in school decision-making and scrap planned increases to some university registration fees.
In Spain, housing protests were triggered by the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal after an investment fund raised her rent by 230%. Campaigners have called for rent freezes, an end to evictions of vulnerable people and regulation of short-term and room rentals. Portugal also saw hundreds gather in central Lisbon, where official data showed housing prices more than doubled between 2015 and 2024. In Italy, household budgets were central to marches in Milan, while clashes were reported in Turin and Bologna.
Protests in Albania against Prime Minister Edi Rama entered a seventh day on Monday, with demonstrators citing perceived corruption, limited jobs and poor education standards. In France, President Emmanuel Macron called street damage “unbearable” and said peaceful demonstrators should be distinguished from people who “destroy, ransack and loot”. Protests nevertheless continued, including a Louvre entrance blockade in Paris, while Spanish housing campaigners announced a general strike for 11 November.
