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Why are people protesting across Europe?

School conditions, unaffordable housing and the cost of living have brought demonstrators on to the streets in several countries

Young people have been taking to the streets across Europe, including in Spain, France and Portugal, to protest over their unhappiness at the state of schools and the wider cost of living crisis.

In France, high school pupils have clashed with police in often violent protests over long hours, missing teachers, dilapidated classrooms and an opaque university admissions system. Pupils routinely miss months of teaching due to unfilled staff absences.

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© Photograph: Benoît Tessier/Reuters

© Photograph: Benoît Tessier/Reuters

© Photograph: Benoît Tessier/Reuters

‘We are suffocating’: protests spread to Lisbon and Milan as housing and living cost tensions intensify

Hundreds at Lisbon tent camp demand action, as Giorgia Meloni says march in Italy was exploited by ‘hooligans’

The angry protests that have convulsed Spain and France in recent weeks have spilled over to Italy and Portugal, with rioters clashing with police and setting property on fire in Milan, and a tent encampment springing up in Lisbon over the weekend.

A march in central Milan on Saturday to protest against rising living costs began peacefully but ended with masked rioters throwing stones, paving blocks and other objects at riot police and setting fire to barricades made from bar tables.

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© Photograph: Piero Cruciatti/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Piero Cruciatti/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Piero Cruciatti/AFP/Getty Images

Arrests over France protests rise to 1,800, with whole streets in Paris ‘devastated’ – Europe live

Interior minister says ‘the Republic will not yield’ to France’s worst protests in years

A dispatch here from Sam Jones, our reporter in Madrid, as protests have spread to Italy and Portugal

The angry protests that have convulsed Spain and France in recent weeks have spilled over to Italy and Portugal, with rioters clashing with police and setting property on fire in Milan, and a tent encampment springing up in Lisbon over the weekend.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Jérôme Gilles/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Jérôme Gilles/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Jérôme Gilles/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

‘If we burn, you burn’: hundreds arrested at protests across France – in pictures

17 October 2026 at 15:59

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets across the country to demonstrate against rising fuel prices and the cost of living

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© Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images

Poland’s ascent from communist state to top 20 economy reverses the brain drain

In the final part of our series on the country, Poles tell how wages have soared – along with the cost of living

Above the rain-soaked streets of Warsaw, the observation deck of the Varso tower overlooks Joseph Stalin’s gift to Poland that has divided opinion for decades.

For some, the Soviet-era Palace of Culture and Science is a drunk confectioner’s nightmare; standing as a relic of oppression that should have been demolished. For others, it is an icon on the skyline and a monumental warning from history.

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© Photograph: Anna Liminowicz/The Guardian

© Photograph: Anna Liminowicz/The Guardian

© Photograph: Anna Liminowicz/The Guardian

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