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
Fossil Free London activists dressed as suffragettes protest outside the National Gallery in London against Labour’s anti-protest laws ahead of International Women’s Day, march 6, 2026 [Photo: Andrea Domeniconi]
CLIMATE campaigners dressed as suffragettes outside the National Gallery today against anti-protest laws ahead of International Women’s Day.
The Fossil Free London group’s action took place ahead of International Women’s Day on Sunday, drawing attention to the tightening of anti-protest laws.
They held placards highlighting comparisons between the jail terms received by climate protesters and those handed to militant suffragettes in the early 20th century.
Just Stop Oil activists Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were sentenced to a combined 44 months in prison for throwing soup in the National Gallery in 2022.
They caused minor damage to the frame of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting.
Their action recalled the famous National Gallery protest by militant suffragette Mary Richardson, arrested for slashing Velazquez’s Rokeby Venus.
She was sentenced to a considerably shorter time of six months in prison.
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark RichardsDonald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Iranian President Pezeshkian joins protests against US intervention. Photo: IRIB
Though anti-government protests have largely subsided, Iran claims there still persists a threat of possible external aggression from countries such as the US and Israel and has warned of strong retaliation.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the “exploitation of the protests to pursue political agendas, combined with the ongoing effects of illegal unilateral US sanctions, undermines Iranians’ basic rights” and is a “shameful” act.
Araghchi was addressing a letter to the UN Security Council, which is scheduled to meet on the afternoon of Thursday, January 15, to discuss the situation in Iran, where anti-government protests in the last few weeks have captured global attention.
Araghchi expressed concerns over “provocative and irresponsible statements” made by current and former US officials inciting violence and unrest in his country and reiterated accusations of the direct involvement of Israel’s secret agency Mossad in the same.
Earlier, in an interview with US TV channel Fox News, Araghchi reiterated that external elements were responsible for “escalating the situation by carrying out attacks against Iranian security forces and civilians.”
Araghchi reiterated that the protests, which began peacefully, turned violent in order to justify foreign intervention.
“They wanted to increase the number of deaths. Why? Because US President Donald Trump had “stated that if there were killings, he would intervene. Their goal was to drag the US into this conflict,” Araghchi claimed, asserting that it was a plot made by Israel.
Araghchi assured that the Iranian state had full control over the situation now and there were no fresh reports of violence in the country.
Meanwhile, threats of a strike by external forces still continue, with Iranian officials claiming they are fully prepared to face any situation.
Fear of US airstrikes
Though the anti-government protests have largely been replaced with millions-strong pro-government rallies since Monday, Iran is still apprehensive about possible air strikes from the US.
Iran had shut its airspace following strong indications of such possible airstrikes after Trump, addressing the protesters in Iran, claimed “help is on its way” on his social media post on Tuesday, asking the protesters to continue and “occupy institutions”.
The news of the withdrawal of some staff from the US military base in Qatar further escalated the fear of possible US strikes on Wednesday.
Several Iranian officials, including the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warned that if Iran is targeted with a military strike, US bases and ships in the region, along with Israeli territories, would be a legitimate target.
Several countries, such as India, and some European nations issued travel warnings to their citizens, asking those who are already there in Iran to leave the country on Wednesday.
Though the airspace was opened after Trump toned down his rhetoric, claiming he was briefed that the violence against protesters had abated, Iran remained on high alert on Thursday, Al Jazeera reported.
Deliberate exaggerations about the number of casualties
Though anti-government protests have largely subsided, Iran continued to restrict internet services on the seventh day in a row on Thursday, with limited accessibility of international calls gradually being restored.
Iran imposed the restrictions after large-scale violence was recorded across the country on January 8.
During his interview with Fox News, Araghchi claimed that the number of people killed in the protests so far does not exceed a few hundred, which includes innocent bystanders killed and the security forces killed by the violent protesters.
Araghchi promised that the state would announce the exact figure soon, dismissing the very high figures quoted in some media outlets, such as CNN, as false.
CNN and several other US media channels have been quoting the relatively unknown US-based Human Rights Activists New Agency (HRANA), claiming the death toll in Iranian protests was more than 2,400.
Araghchi also dismissed the news in the western media about possible hangings of some of the protesters arrested in the last few days.
Later, Iran’s judiciary also refuted the news reports and social media hype around the possible execution of one such protester, Erfan Soltani, arrested on January 10 for unlawful assembly and false propaganda against the state.
The judiciary’s media center called such reports fabricated as no death penalty exists for the crimes Soltani has been charged for in the Iranian laws.
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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
