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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

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Macron criticises ‘unbridled violence’ after days of unrest and 2,400 arrests across France

Ministers, officials and police under pressure over response to protests as government holds crisis talks amid ‘colossal failure of the state’

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has criticised “unbridled violence” after one of the most violent days of unrest in years left public buildings burned, hundreds of shops destroyed and looted and at least 2,400 people arrested in cities across the country.

“Watching these images, we have all asked ourselves how could French people do this to France?” he said in a televised address.

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© Photograph: Pascal Lachenaud/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Pascal Lachenaud/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Pascal Lachenaud/AFP/Getty Images

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Macron criticises ‘unbridled violence’ after days of unrest and 2,400 arrests across France

Ministers, officials and police under pressure over response to protests as government holds crisis talks amid ‘colossal failure of the state’

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has criticised “unbridled violence” after one of the most violent days of unrest in years left public buildings burned, hundreds of shops destroyed and looted and at least 2,400 people arrested in cities across the country.

“Watching these images, we have all asked ourselves how could French people do this to France?” he said in a televised address.

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© Photograph: Pascal Lachenaud/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Pascal Lachenaud/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Pascal Lachenaud/AFP/Getty Images

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I saw rioting, looting, above all, anger. If French leaders think more violence will solve this, they’re mistaken | Oliver Haynes

It’s a perfect storm of protesters with heartfelt grievances and others set on conflict. The key here is the sense of betrayal that united them on the streets

The first thing I learned on the streets of Paris this weekend is that there is no arguing with teargas. I arrived at Place de la République just after 1pm yesterday. The mood was festive until police started firing volleys of teargas into the square from Rue du Faubourg-du-Temple.

I didn’t see the inciting incident – if there even was one – and tried walking into the cloud of CS gas hanging in the air. It was impossible. The gas clings to your nose and burns your eyes, and you quickly start struggling to breathe. I retreated towards the Boulevard de Magenta, blinking furiously to stop the stinging.

Oliver Haynes is a journalist and co-host of Sacré Bleu: the French presidential election podcast

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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© Photograph: Abitbol Shana/ABACA/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Abitbol Shana/ABACA/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Abitbol Shana/ABACA/Shutterstock

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‘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

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‘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

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Azerbaijan and the hijab question

Considerations on the boundaries between secularism, sovereignty, and social stability\

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Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su

The controversy surrounding the wearing of the hijab in Azerbaijani schools took on new dimensions in October, following the implementation of dress code rules that resulted in female students and teachers being denied entry to public institutions. The episode sparked demonstrations, arrests, and criticism from international organizations, while also drawing reactions from Turkey. The debate extends far beyond the school environment, involving questions of sovereignty, religious identity, and regional stability.

Azerbaijan has historical reasons for maintaining a secular state model. The Soviet experience, the formation of its institutions after independence, and the need to govern a religiously diverse society amid a tense regional environment have contributed to the consolidation of a system in which the state maintains strict control over the functioning of public institutions. Azerbaijani authorities have the prerogative to determine their educational policies, establish standards for schools, and decide how constitutional principles are to be implemented.

However, the way these policies are implemented can produce consequences that extend beyond their original objectives. In the case of the hijab, the enforcement of school regulations has provoked resistance among families and religious communities, while arrests related to the protests have amplified the controversy. The government’s central challenge will be to manage this reaction without allowing a dispute over school uniforms to develop into a broader conflict between state authorities and religious communities.

The situation also has important international implications. Ankara, Baku’s main strategic partner, has expressed concern over restrictions on the Islamic headscarf. The political, cultural, and linguistic proximity between the two countries makes the issue particularly sensitive. Although this disagreement does not necessarily amount to a bilateral crisis, it demonstrates how domestic decisions can create friction even between governments that maintain close relations. Ankara must take its own social and political considerations into account, while Baku seeks to preserve its autonomy in managing domestic affairs.

The Iranian dimension also deserves attention. Azerbaijan maintains a complex relationship with Iran, shaped by historical and religious ties as well as strategic disagreements. Like Iran, Azerbaijan has a predominantly Shiite population, while the Islamic Republic has a substantial Azerbaijani minority. Both Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian have Azerbaijani ethnic backgrounds. In this environment, secularization policies may be interpreted by external actors as part of a broader struggle for religious and political influence within Azerbaijan. This interpretation, however, does not establish that the school regulations were adopted exclusively to counter Iranian influence.

There is also a domestic risk worth considering. Religious restrictions implemented too rigidly can produce effects contrary to those intended. When segments of the population perceive certain measures as impositions on their religious practices, radical groups may exploit the resulting discontent, portray the state as an adversary of religion, and expand their capacity for mobilization. Understanding this issue requires consideration of other experiences, such as Syria under the Assad government, where secularism coexisted with the proliferation of extremism. This outcome is not inevitable, and opposition to the regulations should not automatically be equated with extremism. Nevertheless, international experience suggests that this possibility needs close examination.

For Azerbaijan, the issue therefore involves more than the definition of a school uniform. The country has the right to organize its institutions according to its own priorities, without foreign governments dictating its choices. At the same time, maintaining stability requires preventing administrative decisions from fueling lasting polarization or creating new opportunities for actors seeking to intensify religious tensions.

The evolution of this case will have implications for Baku’s relations with Ankara and Tehran, as well as for the country’s domestic political dynamics. The outcome will depend not only on the regulations themselves but also on their practical implementation and the authorities’ response to concerns raised by students, families, and educators. In the South Caucasus, where identity, sovereignty, and security remain closely intertwined, even a seemingly localized dispute can have serious regional repercussions.

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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

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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

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Argentina Rights Group Files Complaint Over Police Crackdown

Argentine security forces during a police crackdown on university protesters in Buenos Aires on October 16.

The complaint alleges excessive force during an October 16 university protest in Buenos Aires, where at least 550 people required medical attention.


Argentina’s Provincial Commission for Memory (CPM) has filed a criminal complaint against President Javier Milei’s government and security officials over a police crackdown on a university protest in Buenos Aires that left at least 550 people requiring medical attention. The filing accuses security forces of abuse of authority, dereliction of official duties and other crimes.

RELATED: Argentina Abstains on UN Colonialism Vote Despite Malvinas Rhetoric

The complaint concerns the October 16 Federal University March and a demonstration against Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) 70 in Plaza del Congreso. It names the Unified National Security Command and authorities in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, alleging that the security operation exceeded legal limits.

The operation involved the Federal Police, Naval Prefecture, National Gendarmerie, Airport Security Police and Buenos Aires City Police. According to the CPM, officers intervened while the mass demonstration was underway, forcing university leaders to interrupt their reading of the main statement from the stage.

The commission reported that officers fired rubber bullets directly at protesters’ faces and heads and used water-cannon trucks against demonstrators. At least 550 people required medical attention, and at least 120 tear-gas grenades were fired, according to the organization.

Journalists and human rights monitors injured

A CPM report documented injuries to 50 media workers and 15 members of the commission, which is chaired by Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Dora Barrancos.

Among those injured were Página/12 photographer Guido Piotrkowski, who was struck twice in the chest by rubber bullets, and TeleSISA journalist Laura Quispe, who sustained nine rubber-bullet impacts.

Footage circulated by the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) showed officers aiming at protesters’ eyes. Later that evening, television cameras recorded Gendarmerie officers collecting spent cartridges from the streets and placing them in bags. The CPM raised concerns about the preservation of potential evidence.

Six people arrested during the demonstration

Six people were arrested during the protest and its dispersal. Two students from Nicolás Avellaneda School were detained at 5:11 p.m. at the intersection of Montevideo and Sarmiento streets.

One student, aged 14, was held for two hours. The other, aged 17, was charged with resisting authority and faces criminal proceedings under the recently introduced juvenile justice regime.

Police later arrested four adults — three men and one woman — at the intersection of Chacabuco Street and Avenida de Mayo. Human rights organizations said the woman, a student at the National University of Tres de Febrero, was stopped because she was carrying a Colombian flag. All four were charged with resisting authority.

Commission seeks records and independent investigation

The CPM’s complaint alleges that the actions of officers and their political superiors were coordinated and carried out under orders from senior officials who knowingly authorized the use of coercion outside the legal framework and in violation of Argentina’s international commitments.

The commission has asked the national and Buenos Aires city security ministries to provide a complete list of personnel deployed during the operation, details of the vehicles, weapons and equipment used, and copies of orders transmitted over police radio frequencies.

It is also seeking information about officers who photographed or filmed protesters, including whether they had prior judicial authorization, as well as footage from the city’s surveillance cameras.

The CPM has called for independent forensic examinations and for the collection, custody and analysis of testimony, commercial recordings and other evidence to remain under the control of the competent court or prosecutor. The request specifically excludes the security forces implicated in the events from handling that evidence.

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Police clash with students and workers protesting in Paris – video

Police fired teargas and blocked streets in Paris during protests supporting high school student grievances, high prices and the fraying of the social welfare system. A peaceful march was seen to turn violent as rioters threw fireworks around Place de la République in central Paris.

Student protests started last month over absent teachers and decrepit school buildings, and has developed into a bigger movement over cost of living and falling standards. Demonstrations broke out nationwide with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets in Paris, Marseille, Lille and Nantes

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

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Revealed: French police used UK-funded 4x4 vehicles to charge student protesters

French government investigating why cars funded by UK to prevent asylum seekers crossing Channel were used in school protests

French police have used 4x4 vehicles paid for by British taxpayers to charge at student protesters during the school protests that have swept the country.

The French government has confirmed that an investigation has been launched into why the cars, funded by the UK government specifically to prevent asylum seekers crossing the Channel, were used during a protest involving school students in Dunkirk.

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© Photograph: Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images

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Revealed: French police used UK-funded 4x4 vehicles to charge student protesters

French government investigating why cars funded by UK to prevent asylum seekers crossing Channel were used in school protests

French police have used 4x4 vehicles paid for by British taxpayers to charge at student protesters during the school protests that have swept the country.

The French government has confirmed that an investigation has been launched into why the cars, funded by the UK government specifically to prevent asylum seekers crossing the Channel, were used during a protest involving school students in Dunkirk.

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© Photograph: Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images

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

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

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Buildings set ablaze and more than 1,800 arrested as police clash with protesters across France

Police fire teargas in Paris and Limoges town hall ‘largely lost’ to fire – with officials blaming violence on ‘ultra-left’

More than 1,800 people were arrested in France on Saturday after protesters supporting high school students clashed with police, with some demonstrations later spiralling out of control as buildings were set ablaze and shops looted.

Police fired teargas in confrontations with protesters, as demonstrations across France were boosted by other groups angry about high prices and the fraying of a social welfare system. While hundreds of thousands protested peacefully in street marches in scores of cities, violent fringe groups targeted public buildings, luxury boutiques and supermarkets and attacked police vehicles and officers.

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© Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA

© Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA

© Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA

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Jury Trials on Trial: Can Justice Survive Political Polarisation?

An activist who painted Churchill red was cleared of criminal damage and juries have deadlocked over alleged support for Hamas. What’s to be done when jurors reject the moral premises of the law, asks Anna Stanley.

The post Jury Trials on Trial: Can Justice Survive Political Polarisation? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Buildings set ablaze and more than 1,800 arrested as police clash with protesters across France

Police fire teargas in Paris and Limoges town hall ‘largely lost’ to fire – with officials blaming violence on ‘ultra-left’

More than 1,800 people were arrested in France on Saturday after protesters supporting high school students clashed with police, with some demonstrations later spiralling out of control as buildings were set ablaze and shops looted.

Police fired teargas in confrontations with protesters, as demonstrations across France were boosted by other groups angry about high prices and the fraying of a social welfare system. While hundreds of thousands protested peacefully in street marches in scores of cities, violent fringe groups targeted public buildings, luxury boutiques and supermarkets and attacked police vehicles and officers.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA

© Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA

© Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA

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Proteste giovanili e contestazione delle falsificazioni nel censimento, l’India assedia Nerendra Modi

Nerendra Modi intende forgiare un nuovo cittadino indiano, un nazionalista di Bharat, il nuovo e al contempo antico nome che ha imposto all’immensa e plurale nazione, prima al mondo per abitanti e terza per capacità economica, deciso a realizzare tale chimerica utopia, non disdegna di utilizzare tutte le leve del potere, anche in modo spregiudicato.

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Arrestare settemila studenti è certamente un segno di debolezza, il tutto con un dispiegamento di cinquantamila soldati delle forze dell’ordine e militari, come a inizio ottobre 2026 a Delhi e in altre città a fronte del movimento di protesta che ha saldato insieme i giovani scesi da mesi nelle piazze per rivendicare un futuro e non l’insulto di “scarafaggi”, loro tributato dal ministro all’istruzione poi costretto alle dimissioni, termine trasformatosi nella definizione del loro movimento politico, il Partito del Popolo degli Scarafaggi, unitosi con i rappresentanti di tutti gli altri partiti dell’opposizione, decisi a rigettare i nuovi elenchi elettorali che hanno fatto sparire, è vero, alcuni indiani deceduti, ma anche molti del tutto vivi e vegeti, eppure sgraditi, spesso perché musulmani, con la capziosa giustificazione che non sarebbero cittadini indiani, quando lo sono da sempre, registrati nell’anagrafe nazionale e in quella elettorale, impropriamente accusati di essere immigrati bengalesi che si camuffano da indiani.

Le manifestazioni sono state aperte, in testa ai cortei, dai “resuscitati”, ovvero i presunti morti, in realtà in ottime condizioni fisiche e mentali, insomma quasi un gogoliano ribaltamento delle celebri “Anime morte”, infatti in questo caso non si contano nei censimenti i morti, ma si fanno sparire i vivi.

Delhi resta in stato d’assedio, le manifestazioni sono state generalmente vietate, tuttavia Nerendra Modi, dopo quasi tre lustri di potere incontrastato e di politiche di totale deregolamentazione neoliberista e ultra – induista, deve fare i conti con l’insofferenza ogni giorno crescente e manifesta di ampi settori della società.

D’altronde tanto accanimento interno contro gli oppositori è inteso a ovviare anche alla modesta estate del primo ministro, il vertice dei BRICS organizzato nella capitale indiana è stato un mezzo fallimento. Nessuno degli attuali promotori del multipolarismo si fida di lui, essendo un amico fraterno di Israele, nonché in combutta economica e militare con gli emiratini, a loro volta al servizio dell’imperialismo occidentale contro gli iraniani e in Sudan e Burkina Faso in azione contro i governi legittimi e contro i progetti di cooperazione di quelle nazioni con Cina e Russia.

Le politiche di Modi sono tutte orientate ad abbandonare la storica vicinanza alla causa palestinese dei tempi del non – allineamento indiano, privilegiando piuttosto la cooperazione nel settore degli armamenti con l’entità statuale israeliana, amplificata, come emerso dal trionfale discorso di Modi alla Knesset nel febbraio 2026, dalla profonda affinità tra il sionismo e l’estremismo induista propugnato dal Bharatiya Janata Party.

Al vertice kirghiso dello SCO, l’Organizzazione per la Cooperazione di Shanghai, di fine agosto Modi è stato relegato ai margini della fotografia ufficiale, mentre il presidente ospitante si stringeva al centro con il primo ministro pakistano, oltre ovviamente a Vladimir Putin e a Xi Jinping.

L’indiana Via del Cotone poi, visti i conflitti che incendiano tutta l’Asia Occidentale, sono sempre più aleatori, buoni soltanto per la mistificazione mediatica messa in campo dai media europei in funzione anti – cinese.

Le manifestazioni hanno per altro rovinato la festa per l’avvento, un quarto di secolo fa, il 7 ottobre 2001, al potere di Modi nel Gujarat, continuazione della parossistica celebrazione del suo 76° compleanno lo scorso 17 settembre, festeggiato con manifestazioni e pellegrinaggi.

La stampa d’opposizione ha insistito piuttosto nel ricordare come, solo un anno dopo il suo insediamento nel 2002, Modi abbia scatenato nel Gujarat una caccia al musulmano senza precedenti, un’ondata di violenza che ha mietuto almeno un paio di migliaia di morti, fatti la cui brutalità è rimasta tragicamente e traumaticamente nel ricordo collettivo.

Il vero dato che spaventa il primo ministro è il fatto che mobilitazioni di così grande portata non attraversano il vasto paese dai tempi di Jawaharlal Nehru e successivamente di sua figlia Indira Gandhi, tuttavia quelle erano manifestazioni a sostegno e non contro il capo di governo, nel primo caso per sostenere il Movimento dei Non Allineati, nel secondo per sottolineare la soddisfazione popolare per l’alleanza con i sovietici, volta a trasformare l’India in una potenza atomica.

Il nazionalismo indù del BJP, ovvero Bharatiya Janata Party, di Nerendra Modi sta invece tentando una rottura netta con tutto quel passato, immagina la nazione come capace di proporre sullo scenario internazionale una propria egemonia, se non esattamente imperialistica, certamente verso un mondo indiano – centrico. Anche in questo caso le aspettative di Modi si scontrano con la modestia delle relazioni stabilite con le vicine nazioni nello spazio eurasiatico e ugualmente negli altri continenti, mentre la proposta multipolare sino – russa risulta largamente condivisa dalle nazioni del Sud Globale.

La narrazione ufficiale di un Nerendra Modi quale figlio di un venditore di tè  dalle origini estremamente umili, è parallela alla lunga militanza nel Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, ovvero la Lega Nazionale dei Volontari, organizzazione ultra – induista fondata nel 1925, nota per la sua feroce adesione al sistema delle caste, molto prossimo ai criteri di discriminazione dei sistemi  fascisteggianti della prima metà del XX secolo. È stata quella infatti la scuola sociale e politica nella quale da giovane si è formato, rafforzando la devozione che tanto lui quanto i dirigenti e i militanti del suo partito portano verso l’assassino del mahatma Gandhi, ovvero Nathuram Godse, il quale proprio grazie a Modi dal 2020 ha un santuario che ne ospita le ceneri e che è meta di pellegrinaggio per tutti gli attivisti del Bharatiya Janata Party, lo stesso primo ministro si è recato più volte a Pune, mostrando convinta adesione alle ragioni nazionalistico – induiste, anti – pakistane e anti – musulmane che hanno ispirato quel gesto omicida compiuto il 30 gennaio 1948 a Nuova Delhi.

Alcune iniziative promosse dai suoi sostenitori nel corso dei festeggiamenti di settembre – ottobre più che aumentare la considerazione del primo ministro, hanno rasentato il ridicolo, nel piccolo stato del Tripura il governatore locale Manik Saha ha imposto, con vivo disappunto delle famiglie, alle bambine e ai bambini di tutte le cinquemila scuole di partecipare a concorsi di disegno e di scrittura in lode di Nerendra Modi. Il risultato è che dopo un decennio di egemonia induista lo stato di Tripura ha tutta la possibilità di tornare ad essere governato dal Fronte di Sinistra, guidato dal Partito Comunista Indiano – Marxista (CPI-M) e dai suoi alleati. Tuttavia questo fenomeno può apparire estremo, ma non isolato, in Rajasthan, lo storico partito dei Gandhi, il Congresso, oggi all’opposizione, ha criticato le direttive rivolte a studenti e insegnanti di tutti gli istituti scolastici statali e privati per la partecipazione alle celebrazioni per il primo ministro.

Proprio il Congresso sottolinea e documenta ampiamente come sia imbarazzante investire tanti denari pubblici per celebrazioni fuori luogo, quando, a detta dello stesso primo ministro, ancora molte siano le aree, non solo rurali, in cui mancano i servizi igienici e il collegamento, almeno per i villaggi più remoti, alla rete elettrica, il tutto mentre gli indiani scendono in piazza per protestare e al contempo gli attivisti del Bharatiya Janata Party scorrazzano in bus collettivi e motociclette da Varanasi a Vadnagar, città natale di Modi nel Gujarat, con gigantografie del primo ministro ed enormi bandiere arancioni.

Anche i conflitti in corso in ogni landa del pianeta stanno assestando un duro colpo alla dottrina ultra – liberista di Modi, il quale fondandosi sulla massima deregolamentazione e la più spregiudicata libertà per i capitali, con il drammatico risvolto di scarsissime tutele per i lavoratori, non rispettando mai le organizzazioni sindacali e le normative ambientali, ha accresciuto il Prodotto Interno Lordo prima del Gujarat, poi di tutta l’India, con una crescita ancora al 7% per l’anno fiscale 2025/2026, tuttavia è abbastanza evidente che l’economia nel 2026/2027 segnerà un brusco ridimensionamento, complicando di molto la vita di quel terzo di indiani che vivono di un lavoro nel settore precario o in quello informale, già molto poco avvantaggiati dalla crescita degli anni passati, tra questi lavoratori molti sono musulmani, cristiani, dalit, ovvero appartenenti alla casta degli intoccabili, e adivasi, i popoli nativi che quasi nessuno conosce e ricorda, ma sommano nell’insieme almeno cento milioni di persone, non è un caso che la modesta lotta alla povertà abbia visto piuttosto accrescere profonde e pesanti divaricazioni sociali, con una ristretta minoranza sempre più abbiente.

Il governo per altro è stato ferocemente contestato per quasi tutto il 2026 anche dagli agricoltori, il movimento dei lavoratori della terra è infatti riuscito a impedire l’introduzione nel settore di leggi smaccatamente liberiste e penalizzanti i produttori diretti.

I venti di opposizione non appaiono impensierire per il momento il governo, tuttavia l’epoca dei trionfalismi, come quando nel gennaio 2024 Modi ha presieduto la sfarzosa inaugurazione del colossale tempio di Ram nella città di Ayodhya, anche in questo caso come altre volte edificato sul luogo di una preesistente moschea, appaiono se non irripetibili, del tutto lontani.

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