San Francisco Frontiers - 'Generational rage': Young Europeans fight to be heard

Their demands vary, but they are united in wanting to make their often marginalised voices heard, sometimes even with radical methods in the face of heavy-handed policing.

"We are fighting and taking our future in our hands," said Damiano Fusa, 18, a student at Rome's Cavour high school, the first to be occupied in a wave of student takeovers that has spread across the Italian capital.

"We're not represented by anyone," Fusa told AFP, criticising both Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's hard-right coalition and previous centre-left governments for cutting education funding and ignoring young people's needs.

Hundreds of thousands of high school and university students have rallied in France, Italy, Spain and other European countries in recent weeks, with some protests descending into violence.

Governments have largely focused on restoring order, with France imposing partial curfews and Italy deploying soldiers, responses protesters say obscure their demands and could make things even worse.

"Politicians are responding in ways that are completely disconnected from reality, completely absurd," said Luis Marques, a 19-year-old psychology student in Lisbon.

Students are demanding action on soaring rents, more spending on education instead of defence and more job opportunities for young people.

But experts say the unrest reflects a broader sense among many young Europeans that they have been shut out of politics and sidelined.

"These young people do not just feel like they do not have a place in politics, they feel they are not being heard at all," said Geoffrey Pleyers, president of the International Sociological Association.

Rosario Forlenza, a professor at Rome's Luiss University, called it a "European generational revolt" rooted in a social and economic crisis "to which politicians cannot give a substantive response".

"Young people are a minority of the population that is shrinking and so their social, economic, cultural, political and electoral weight is becoming ever more irrelevant," he said.

- 'Inspiring other people' -

The anger has been particularly palpable in France and Italy, where fresh demonstrations are planned for Saturday.

"People are very angry, they've had enough. Working hard all day and still not being able to fill up their shopping cart," a 20-year-old student who gave his name as Eddy told AFP at a protest in Bordeaux last weekend.

"Will smashing everything change anything? I think it can be a jolt to wake up the politicians. We don't know what else to do to make ourselves heard. The ballot box? We don't believe in it anymore," he said.

Protest movements across Europe are increasingly drawing inspiration from one another, and even looking to youth-led movements further afield in places like Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

In Italy, one student slogan last week urged protesters to "do as in France", while shared symbols, including the Jolly Roger pirate flag, have become common across youth rallies.

Marcos Navarro, 22, a laboratory quality-control technician from Madrid, said protesters across Europe were meeting to share tactics.

"They've come to ask us: 'How did you do it? How do you organise yourselves?' We've already exchanged ideas," said Navarro, who has been camping with hundreds of others in Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square since September to protest housing costs and evictions.

Ayla Herrero, a 26-year-old anthropologist helping at the camp's infirmary, said it was "inspiring for us to know that we're inspiring other people, that it doesn't just stay here".

- 'Not acceptable' -

Concern about the rise in military spending in Europe following the Russian invasion of Ukraine has also been a rallying point.

Nikos Mavroudis, a 17-year-old high school student in Athens' Exarchia neighbourhood, said the money could be better spent on his school, where chunks of plaster are falling.

"It's not acceptable for classrooms to be dangerous," said Mavroudis, who hopes to become a cook and plans to move elsewhere in Europe to "countries where things are better".

At Rome's occupied Morgagni high school, where students have barricaded entrances with desks, protesters pointed to the crumbling infrastructure as evidence of neglect.

An 18-year-old, who did not want to be named, said the media and politicians in Italy were focusing too heavily on looting and vandalism by some protesters.

"It turns hatred against the students who are victims of this system," he said.

Asked about the violence, Sabrina Brizzola, 24, coordinator of the Italian University Students' Union, said organisations like hers should "organise and channel this generational rage".

"We have shared concerns, even if our ways of protesting differ," she said.

G.Collins--SFF