MADRID, OCT 19 (AP): Rising fuel costs, discontent with the state of schools, declining public services and a housing crisis have created perfectly stormy weather for an autumn of protests in Europe.
Crowds have taken to the streets for weeks in major cities, resulting in arrests, looting, injuries, and violence across France, Italy and Albania. In Spain and Portugal, tent camps have sprung up in protests against unattainable rents and housing costs.
Cities have turned into battlefields as several top EU economies, including France, Italy and Spain, approach pivotal elections, while far-right parties have made electoral gains in Germany and could do so elsewhere.
It also comes as Europe faces a critical moment in its support for Ukraine, with President Donald Trump making overtures to President Vladimir Putin even as Russia is blamed for increasingly frequent hybrid attacks in NATO countries.
In France, which has a centuries-old tradition of popular protest, high schoolers have staged blockades and demonstrations for more than three weeks, demanding more resources for schools they call understaffed and dilapidated, especially in lower-income neighbourhoods.
The protests then broadened as France’s CGT labour union and other activists joined in while students paused for a fall break. The movement now includes demands over rising living costs and public services.
Despite hundreds of thousands of people marching peacefully, the weekend’s unrest led to 2,400 arrests and serious disturbances in parts of France, including looting in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux. In Limoges, flames engulfed the 19th-century City Hall and nearly destroyed the building. Some schools were set on fire. As students and rioters threw firebombs and law enforcement responded with tear gas, hundreds have been injured.
In Spain, elementary and secondary schoolteachers began an indefinite strike in Madrid last week to demand better pay and working conditions. Discontented teachers staged similar walkouts elsewhere in Spain this year.
“Italia in Piazza,” or Italy in the Streets, has galvanized thousands of demonstrators, voicing demands for better employment, healthcare, education, and access to housing, as well as higher wages to deal with rising costs. Inflation in Italy rose to 4.2 per cent in September, surpassing the eurozone’s 3.8 per cent, according to government data.
The peaceful marches turned violent in three northern cities: In Turin and Bologna, and in Milan — Italy’s finance and fashion capital, where rioters clashed with police, looted stores and set property on fire.
In Albania, anti-government protests continued Sunday for a sixth consecutive day in Tirana, featuring more clashes between demonstrators and police. The violence escalated after high school and university students joined the broad anti-government “Flamingo” movement calling for Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign.
In Serbia, university students who have led mass anti-corruption protests for nearly two years are now challenging a return by the Balkan country’s powerful populist leader Aleksandar Vucic in early parliamentary elections this month.