A wave of youth protests is spreading across the world, with demonstrations challenging governments over education, employment, housing, climate policy and corruption. The movement began gaining symbolic momentum in late 2026 after young people in France climbed the July Column at Paris’s Place de la Bastille, in what has become the largest outbreak of student demonstrations in six decades, according to Gordon Brown.
Protests have since emerged in countries including Italy, India and Albania. In Rome, students occupying a high school reportedly began their demands with the words “like in France”. In India, the government has responded with force to the Cockroach movement, while Albanian students have spent almost five months protesting corruption and calling for a change of government.
The most significant political development has taken place in Serbia. The Student List, a group of candidates connected to the protest movement, reportedly helped remove a long-established government accused of corruption and alleged links to organised crime before winning an electoral mandate. The group is now preparing to form a new administration, an outcome described as unprecedented.
The movement has also introduced alternative methods of political organisation. Eighty-five student assemblies selected the Student List’s candidates through open public meetings, rotating delegates and specialist working groups. The process did not automatically favour prominent supporters: Vladan Djokić, rector of the University of Belgrade and a long-term backer of the movement, was not chosen as a candidate.
The Serbian campaign reportedly raised almost €2 million from more than 26,000 individual donors. Croatian philosopher Srećko Horvat has compared the movement’s approach to traditions of direct democracy and collective self-organisation associated with the Paris Commune of 1871.
The current protests follow youth mobilisations in Kenya in 2024 and in Nepal, Indonesia, the Philippines, Madagascar, Morocco and Peru in 2025. Social media is helping protesters build shared identities and maintain connections, according to Olivier Ertzscheid, a senior lecturer at the University of Nantes.
During September and October, young people demonstrated in Belgium, Austria, Greece and Italy over education funding; in Germany over possible compulsory military service; and in Spain and Portugal over unaffordable housing. Protests elsewhere have focused on pollution in Indonesia, austerity in Argentina, and funding cuts in Chile and Colombia. In Germany, the group Gen Z regelt organised demonstrations in 21 cities.
Further actions are planned. A major student demonstration is scheduled in Australia for 11 November, while student unions in Britain and Italy are preparing a joint day of action on 20 November against rising education costs.
The protests reflect wider economic pressures facing young people. They include the prospect of job losses linked to artificial intelligence, limited access to education, a housing crisis, and frustration over governments’ handling of the climate emergency and intergenerational justice.
In the United Kingdom, graduate job postings on one major employment agency have fallen from about 180,000 four years ago to 50,000 today. Employment in the technology sector among people aged 18 to 24 declined by 30% between December 2019 and December 2025, even as the sector grew by 33%. The source argues that addressing youth unemployment should include pre-apprenticeship training, restored educational maintenance allowances and changes to a benefits system seen as inadequate for younger people.
Governments worldwide are also facing rising debt, increased defence spending and energy subsidies, leaving less room to meet young people’s expectations. Across the OECD, around half of health and social security spending goes to people over 65, although they represent 18.5% of the population. Pensions account for 38% of all social spending, while income and wealth differences between younger and older generations have widened.
Valérie Becquet, a sociologist at CY Cergy Paris University, says the demonstrations are developing into a broader social movement shaped by inequalities between social groups. Although the immediate causes differ from one country to another, the central grievance is similar: many young people believe the promise that they would enjoy better lives than their parents has already been broken.
Sources: The Guardian Education.