Demonstrators with a banner reading ‘The Youth Is Angry’ attend a protest under the slogan ‘Gen Z Takes Care of It’ in Berlin, Germany, October 31, 2026
PROTESTS over cuts and the cost of living continue to rock Italy and France. Millions were on the streets across Europe on Saturday.
Over the weekend mass demonstrations spread to Germany, where the “welfare not warfare” cause has taken centre stage. Placards at the thousands-strong rally at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate read “Merz Must Go,” “No to Cuts and War Budgets,” “Invest in People Not War.”
As in France the monopoly media focus on occasional outbursts of violence rather than the issues at stake. But this is a movement demanding a complete change of political direction across the continent.
German protesters are not the first to link cuts to social spending to ballooning military budgets. But the political choice being made is especially stark in Europe’s biggest economy.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz is a millionaire whose previous role at US asset-management giant Blackrock ties him to the most parasitical and unproductive expression of modern capitalism.
His government has imposed savage cuts on healthcare — raising the co-payer element for drugs and hospital stays that applies in Germany and cutting insurance exemptions for non-working spouses. It has taken an axe to pensions, which Merz openly says will no longer maintain pensioners’ living standards over time.
It has cut unemployment benefit even as deindustrialisation accelerates, courtesy of the move from piped Russian gas imports to costlier and ecologically more damaging liquefied natural gas shipments from the US.
All this has accompanied staggering increases in military spending — Germany even amended its constitution to exempt the armed forces from its famed balanced-book requirements — and the introduction of compulsory fitness-for-military-service checks at 18, which millions of young people rightly see as a stepping stone to conscription.
As the Morning Star’s German sister paper Junge Welt puts it, young people see investment in the young (across education, parental leave rights and child benefits) slashed; they see decent jobs disappearing as factories close; and “the administrators of this misery offer only one alternative to these hopeless young people: to die on the G36 rifle for German imperialism.”
These are the same dilemmas mobilising the young in France and Italy. In France, the movement is now readying for mass strike action on November 5 as unions and left forces call out the refusal of the Emmanuel Macron regime to change course.
The drive to war is real, Europe-wide, and exceptionally dangerous. All proposals for a negotiated end to the Ukraine war are dismissed as surrender by European governments and their direct involvement in the conflict is ever deeper.
We cannot tolerate the normalisation of the prospect of war “on the scale our grandparents and great-grandparents endured,” as promoted by Nato secretary-general and Trump boot-licker Mark Rutte. Such a war would kill millions and would be, contrary to the propaganda we are exposed to presenting Russia as an imminent threat, a war of choice by Western powers.
Besides its terrible risks, the war drive is, as the young people of Europe increasingly recognise, being used to justify the permanent degradation of public services and social security.
We need an alternative to austerity and war: a programme for state-led investment in reindustrialisation and the technologies and infrastructure projects needed to cope with climate change.
This is as true of Britain as of Europe — which is why, following a do-nothing Budget, the left needs to build a campaign for a new economic direction big enough to force ministers’ hand before next year’s Spending Review.
And as we see on the streets of Paris, Madrid, Rome and Berlin, it is as true of Europe as it is of Britain — exposing claims by Rachel Reeves and other EU-nostalgics who claim Brexit is the source of our economic problems as a total distraction from the fight for economic transformation we need.
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People march in Paris for education reform and against inequality on October 24, 2026. (Photo by Jean-Luc Mélenchon /X)
“Looking at countries like the United States, we don’t want to end up like them, where part of the population has everything and the others have nothing,” one French protester said.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across Europe on Saturday as anger continues to build over the rising cost of living and deteriorating social services.
While demonstrators emphasized different demands in different countries, the protest wave reflects a sense that the status quo has ceased to work for ordinary people, especially the young.
“I see so many more similarities than differences,” Alice de Brito, the vice president of French student union UNEF, told CNN of the protests. “We are all talking about the need for investments in education, in the universities, in youth in general. But we are also talking about the cost of living, about housing.”
France
Across France, between 410,000 and 800,000 people turned out in the continuation of protests that erupted in September when students began to mobilize against underfunding, teacher shortages, and other poor conditions in their schools. Adult workers have joined with the students, criticizing widespread inequality and the rising cost of living, leading to mass demonstrations on October 17 and again a week later.
“Looking at countries like the United States, we don’t want to end up like them, where part of the population has everything and the others have nothing,” Paris protester Louis Ledoux–Xatard told The Associated Press.
“Too many billionaires; we are preparing the revolution,” one group of protesters chanted, according to Al Jazeera.
There were 289 protests in France, including in Marseilles, Nantes, Nice, Lyon, Bordeaux, and Orleans. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said that almost 1,000 people were arrested, though the number was expected to grow. Two people sustained significant injuries.
“Behind every police officer, a compliant camera.”
The protest in Paris had originally been scheduled to run through the center of the city, but authorities relocated it to outskirts and banned marches organized by groups other than unions.
“It won’t stop the movement. It won’t stop students from demanding better conditions in schools,” nurse Soumaya Abed told AP of the changes.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who leads the left-wing France Unbowed party, criticized the government of President Emmanuel Macron for changing the route, but also praised the marchers for carrying on.
“Total victory for the social movement,” Mélenchon wrote on social media. “The march gathered at the new authorized point and is now flowing calmly over more than four kilometers. The provocations for disorder by the Paris police prefect and [French Prime Minister Sébastien] Lecornu are a total failure. For the authorities, it is time to give in, or soon they will have only the exit door left.”
Victoire totale du mouvement social. La marche s'est rassemblée au nouveau point autorisé et déferle dans le calme sur plus de quatre kilomètres. Les provocations aux désordres du préfet de police et de Lecornu sont un échec total. Pour les autorités, il est temps de céder, sinon… pic.twitter.com/S3d6k2DWf3
Media reported that the Parisian demonstration was largely peaceful until the end, when police released tear gas and fired water cannons and some black-clad protesters threw projectiles.
Reporters with Agence France-Presse said they saw:
police charge several times and vigorously use tear gas and batons against some, mostly young, protesters. “The police started moving towards everyone, telling them to get down and back off. They were just taking people down, you know, beating protesters,” one demonstrator bleeding from a baton blow to his face, who gave his first name as David, told AFP.
Other witnesses also described a repressive police response to The Guardian:
Mike, a 23-year-old student who also declined to give his surname, said: “Look around, they’re just teenagers. Is it normal for teenagers to be teargassed and beaten with batons?”
For Jessica, a 24-year-old student, said: “I just don’t understand why there’s so much violence. I feel like our right to protest is being trampled on.”
Mélenchon lambasted the police and the media for working together to discredit the movement.
“In Paris, to ruin the day and unwind, the so-called forces of law and order gas and fire into the crowd at the back of the procession, all in a bid to get footage for the domestic news channels that spent the whole week airing the images that spurred the Trappes killer,” he wrote on social media, referring to a racially motivated shooting west of Paris on Friday that killed one and wounded five.
In a second post, he added: “It continues with the policing of minds through the televisions of power. Tonight, staging of the « tails of the procession » to spew hatred against the popular movement. Without a single image of the masses in peaceful action. Behind every police officer, a compliant camera.”
He encouraged readers to “turn off the televisions! Form your own opinion without a guardian. Journey through social networks. Stay free to think for yourselves.”
Belgium
In neighboring Belgium, hundreds of people marched in Brussels in a continuation of demonstrations for improvements in the education system.
“We are here for young people’s future, for better work,” rally speaker Celia Ponce told the crowd, as The Brussels Times reported.
She also accused governments of wanting to “destroy public services.”
Protesters build barricades with bikes and scooters in Brussels, Belgium.
Police used tear gas to disperse some protesters and, in an incident reported by Reuters, kicked and hit one demonstrator after they fell during a chase.
Spain
Approximately 25,000 people marched in Madrid to support Spain’s pension system and demand that it keep pace with inflation and that a gender gap be eliminated, according to Al Jazeera.
“How beautiful Madrid is when it defends its rights,” Emilio Delgado, deputy spokesperson for left party Mas Madrid, wrote on social media. “We propose that no pension should be below the minimum wage. A lifetime of work deserves a dignified retirement.”
The protests come a month ahead of Spain’s general election, in which current Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party will face off against the right-wing Popular Party. Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo has promised to adjust pensions according to inflation if his party wins, but demonstrators are still concerned about what a right-wing victory would mean for the pension system.
People marched in Lisbon, continuing a movement that began October 10 in the city of Porto calling on the government to address the country’s housing crisis, according to The Resident.
Palco dos protestos promovidos pelo movimento Acampada de Lisboa, o Rossio voltou a acolher "um mar de gente" que reivindica soluções do Governo para a atual crise da habitação.
“We have no home, so we set up tents!” read the slogan of the March, organized by the Acampada de Lisboa movement.
The protesters also opposed new policies from Prime Minister Luis Montenegro that would weaken a limit on annual rent increases and make it easier to evict people who are unable to make rent payments, according to AP.
Italy
Thousands of people joined demonstrations across Italy to protest the affordability crisis as well as the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Protests were called for eight cities including Milan, Turin, and Rome, with 10,000 attending the Milan demonstration alone.
“We are here because of the rising prices and because I believe that our government has no respect for its citizens,” a 17-year-old student participant, who did not give a name, told Al Jazeera. “There are four people in my family. My mother works in a factory, but my father is about to lose his job. It’s hard to make ends meet on just one salary.”
Thousands of protesters took to the streets across Italy to demonstrate against Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government and the rising cost of living, as hundreds of soldiers were deployed to Milan as protests continue.
The Italian protests were a continuation of demonstrations that have taken place throughout October. There were fewer clashes between police and demonstrators on Saturday compared with earlier marches, though some protesters tried to enter the Colosseum before being pushed back.
Albania
In Albania, outrage over plans by US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to build a luxury resort near a protected wildlife area—which is widely seen as an example of government corruption—has dovetailed with demands by students for less corruption in the education system specifically as well as lower tuition fees and more funding.
A demonstration in the capital of Tirana on Saturday marked the 12th day of anti-government protests this month following a summer of mobilizations against the luxury hotel.
Some protesters lit fires and threw projectiles, while police used tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannons.
Protesters in Albania have fought running battles with police, on a 12th day of anti-government protests.
Police in the capital, Tirana, used water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets after Prime Minister Edi Rama warned he would take strong action to quell unrest. pic.twitter.com/6oZMYPU7Ei
People walk past a shop’s placard that reads “Greenland is not for sale!” on July 24, 2026 in Nuuk, Greenland. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
“Let nobody think Trump has given up on taking Greenland,” warned one professor of European politics.
After appearing to back off earlier this year, President Donald Trump this week renewed his threats to seize Greenland. A Saturday report that a Texasoil company with ties to Trump had begun preparing to drill in the Arctic territory without permission has raised fresh concerns that his push for control of the island may already be moving beyond rhetoric.
As The Guardian reported, Greenland’s government issued a “strong warning” last week after learning that a Texas oil company called Greenland Energy had begun making unauthorized preparations for oil extraction in Jameson Land, a remote area of eastern Greenland, including bringing drilling materials ashore.
The company, founded last year, has claimed that Jameson Land may contain $1 trillion worth of crude oil and announced plans to drill two wells there—a project that requires approval from Greenland’s government.
Has Trump’s invasion of Greenland already begun? An American oil company connected to Donald Trump is preparing to sink wells in remote Greenland despite not having received permission from the local authorities. https://t.co/12w064lknY
The company also has ties to several Trump allies and associates. According to The Guardian:
Greenland Energy has retained Phil McGraw, better known as Dr. Phil, a prominent right-wing former chatshow host who served on Trump’s religious freedom commission, to make a documentary series that will “capture the mission of these modern-day wildcatters.”
It has also appointed as a director a US Navy veteran who is working on Golden Dome, the missile defense plan for which Trump says controlling Greenland is “vital.”
Larry Swets, Greenland Energy’s chair and a big shareholder, appears to enjoy access to Trump’s circle. He has said the oil project is “not related to American annexation.”
A Greenland Energy representative falsely claimed in June that the company had permission to place equipment on Jameson Land, before later saying there had been confusion.
But the following month, residents saw a barge arrive with drilling equipment. A Danish outlet confirmed that the delivery was intended for Greenland Energy.
Following the delivery, Greenland’s government said on July 30 that the company “did not have the necessary approvals from the mineral resources authority” and would receive a warning that “all future logistical matters must be advised and approved by the mineral resources authority—before they are carried out.”
Two days later, Trump posted an ominious digitally altered image to Truth Social depicting himself as a giant looming over a Greenlandic town, captioned “Hello, Greenland!”
A day earlier, Trump had appeared on the right-wing network Real America’s Voice, where host Steve Gruber reminded him that he had predicted Greenland would be under US control by the time he leaves office in 2029.
“You’ll be right,” Trump replied. “Greenland is important. Not from their standpoint, from our standpoint. You should make that bet.”
Before this week’s comments, Trump had spoken far less publicly about Greenland since January, when he threatened to use military force to take over the island if Denmark did not cede it. To pressure NATO allies, Trump threatened steep tariffs on several European countries, but backed off after Europe pledged retaliatory tariffs, causing panic in the financial markets.
President Trump just posted, "Hello, Greenland!" 👋 So… when is it happening? 😉 pic.twitter.com/gs4jRH7ZIS
— Donald J Trump Posts TruthSocial (@TruthTrumpPost) August 1, 2026
“Let nobody think Trump has given up on taking Greenland,” said John O’Brennan, professor of European politics at Maynooth University in Ireland. He added that Greenland Energy’s unauthorized activity “is the latest act of lawlessness his acolytes are engaged in.”
Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, responded to the story by asking, “Has Trump’s invasion of Greenland already begun?”
Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat suggested it was possible. “Invasions,” she said, “often start with ‘technical’ projects that justify the presence of operatives and ‘technical experts’ who are also doing recon and advance prep.”
The Greenlandic government ultimately said it “would not be proportionate” to order Greenland Energy to remove the drilling equipment, a decision that The Guardian said underscored the difficult position facing its officials.
“They could grant permission for oil drilling, even though the planned wells appear to fall within a conservation area protected by the Ramsar convention on wetlands,” the report explained. “Or they could refuse and, some worry, give Trump a pretext to advance his imperialist agenda.”
Although the project has not been approved, a Greenland Energy representative said a vessel carrying additional drilling equipment would depart Canada in September, with drilling set to begin in October.
Jessica Berlin, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, warned that allowing the equipment to remain would signal weakness that Trump could exploit.
“Don’t even think about allowing this,” she wrote in a post directed to the Greenlandic and Danish governments. “If you give them an inch, they’ll take 100 miles. Kick them out now or accept that you just opened the floodgates.”
“Like Putin, you can’t negotiate with Trump,” she added. “Showing weakness will just guarantee the next outrage.”
As part of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland is covered by NATO’s Article 5 collective-defense clause, which obligates member nations to defend one another from armed attack. But NATO has no precedent for how Article 5 would apply if one member—the US—attacked another.
O’Brennan warned, “Europe—you are about to be seriously tested.”
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People cooling off near the Colosseum in Rome. Authorities have warned people to avoid direct sunlight during the hottest hours, to stay indoors where possible and drink at least 1.5 litres of water a day. Photograph: Remo Casilli/Reuters
Move comes as fourth heatwave of summer intensifies, edging temperatures in some areas close to 40C
Italy is to place all of its 27 major cities, from Trieste in the north to Palermo in the south, under the highest heat alert as the fourth heatwave to hit the country this summer intensifies.
A red alert means there is a higher chance of an emergency owing to the health risk posed by prolonged extreme temperatures to the entire population.
Twenty-five cities were on red alert on Wednesday, with two more to be added on Thursday, the health ministry said. It is the first time this year that all 27 cities monitored by the health ministry’s heat surveillance system have been placed on maximum alert.
…
As temperatures in some areas of Italy have edged up towards 40C in recent days, authorities have warned people to avoid direct sunlight between 11am and 6pm, to stay indoors where possible and drink at least 1.5 litres of water a day. Other guidelines include avoiding fizzy drinks, coffee, alcohol and heavy meals, wearing light clothes and never leaving children or animals in cars.
The extreme heat, which scientists say is driven by the human-caused climate crisis, is not forecast to let up for at least a week. Europe has warmed about twice as fast as the global average.
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Shrivelled sunflowers near the village of Kovilj, Serbia. Photograph: Andrej Isaković/AFP/Getty Image.
Slovakia reaches new high of 42C as authorities in Poland forced to shut down Kozienice and Połaniec power plants
Temperature records have been broken in several countries across central and eastern Europe as the extreme weather that has caused wildfires and droughts across the continent continues.
Countries including Slovakia, Austria and Hungary registered record temperatures. On Thursday, the Slovakian hydrometeorological agency said a new high of 42C (108F) had been reached in Dolné Plachtince.
Authorities in Poland were forced to shut down the Kozienice and Połaniec coal-fired power plants after critically low water levels in the Vistula River limited cooling water supplies. The disruption removed about 1.3GW of capacity from Poland’s power system.
In Germany, climate activists demanding an end to the use of fossil fuels demonstrated outside the chancellery against the lack of government action to keep people safe from extreme heat. An estimated 11,900 people across the country have died from heat this summer, according to new estimates from the Robert Koch Institute.
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Demonstrators with a banner reading ‘The Youth Is Angry’ attend a protest under the slogan ‘Gen Z Takes Care of It’ in Berlin, Germany, October 31, 2026
