“A spectre is haunting Europe,” goes a famous and provocative statement from Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto. While the “spectre” engulfing Europe is not communism, the continent is experiencing a surge in protests. Many of them were initiated by Generation Z youths, but numerous protests quickly spread to encompass support from the general population. Given my current location in the UK as well as my previous article (“Youth Movements Around The World”) discussing youth protests around the world, I thought it would be important to take another look at the state of the world through a focus on Europe.
The protests in France: the most well-known, perhaps the most well-covered in the media at the moment, and the movement that kickstarted the current wave of demonstrations. The background: a new government budget proposal, prior to the start of the 2026–27 school year, contained over €61 billion in new spending cuts, with public education as one of the components on the chopping block. This, combined with school infrastructure issues in French overseas territories, led to the beginning of protests. However, the protests that truly gathered mainstream media attention were the teachers’ strike and subsequent student protests in metropolitan France. These protests did not stay confined to educational grievances; nay, they quickly evolved into a greater critique of social circumstances within French society. Unions, parents, and political parties joined in, and complaints shifted to include high inflation, rents, fuel costs, and unemployment. For the most part, protests have been peaceful, but cases of extreme violence and casualties on both sides have dominated the headlines.
France is heading into a pivotal presidential election next year that will likely decide the direction of the country — and potentially the rest of Europe. Thus, this protest is being used by politicians on all sides to make their case for the powerful presidential office. The more centrist French government accused the far-left, specifically La France Insoumise party (LFI), of instigating the violence. The far-right National Rally party leader and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen also criticized the far-left, and other far-right politicians blamed the violence on what they described as “hatred of France and a desire for revenge over colonialism.” Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader and presidential candidate of LFI, criticized the government’s response and has publicly supported nonviolent demonstrations. Protesters said the movement was spontaneous and counter-accused the government for inciting conspiratorial thinking. As these statements show, France is very divided and, with public debt reaching 119.1% of GDP in the second fiscal quarter of 2026, is in a tough position. Continuing to cut expenditures leads to greater escalation among protestors, while ignoring the fact that the current GDP can no longer even service the public debt will lead to an inability of the French government to maintain its social welfare net — this doesn’t include the risks to the entire European Union through the French economy causing a more volatile euro.
Some might propose wealth taxes. While this may help the economic crisis, most experts believe that there will have to be a reduction in welfare or an increase in taxes, if not both. This is truly being stuck between a rock and a hard place. One can feel for Macron while also understanding the unfairness the public faces.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom in Europe. Take Serbia and Hungary. Back in 2024, what started out as a student movement against a corrupt construction contract that led to 16 deaths evolved into a political movement that won an absolute majority in the recent Serbian parliamentary election. An article by Cristina Panaguta `26, “A New Chapter for Europe: Hungary’s Parliamentary Elections,” covers a similar story of how Hungarian youths retook the country and, like Serbia, are working to hold corrupt officials accountable and bring the nation back onto the path of democracy.
Whether in Paris, Belgrade, or Budapest, the protests share a common thread: a generation that feels it has inherited the bill without having had a say in the spending. Youth movements have turned frustration into political change in Serbia and Hungary. Other places require more time before a final judgment. Marx’s work was published during the monumental year of 1848, when revolutions swept across Europe. Are we seeing the second instance? Time will be the final judge. What about the United States? One could argue that many aspects of the democratic socialist movement within the Democratic Party are similar to their peers in Europe in addressing shared grievances of corruption and cost of living. Either way, governments would be wise to treat these protests as more than a passing news cycle. The story is still being written, and it would be a mistake for anyone in power to assume they know the ending.
~ Roy Li `28
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