Officers are instruments of state whose job is to repress, rather than manage, public dissent
Familiar images of teargas clouds drifting across Paris squares, police baton charges against masked protesters and terrified teenagers floored – and worse – by stun grenades have once again focused the world’s attention on France’s policing methods.
While most of its western European neighbours generally favour police tactics that prioritise crowd containment and de-escalation, France has long responded to social movements that take to the streets with, at times, shocking physical force.
Officers are instruments of state whose job is to repress, rather than manage, public dissent
Familiar images of teargas clouds drifting across Paris squares, police baton charges against masked protesters and terrified teenagers floored – and worse – by stun grenades have once again focused the world’s attention on France’s policing methods.
While most of its western European neighbours generally favour police tactics that prioritise crowd containment and de-escalation, France has long responded to social movements that take to the streets with, at times, shocking physical force.
Two activists have been ordered by DOJ to testify in mysterious grand jury proceedings regarding their involvement in efforts to deface an Israeli weapons manufacturing facility in New Hampshire, after feds had sought in an earlier trial to obtain sentences of 37 years for them.
Students and demonstrators gather in Tirana for an eighth day of protests, calling for the prime minister's resignation over corruption, job shortages and poor education standards
Violent demonstrations have rocked Europe as protesters call for action over poor university conditions, high tuition fees, corruption, housing costs and the high cost of living
What began as peaceful demonstrations over school conditions culminated in nationwide cost-of-living protests and, subsequently, riots.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said Tuesday that curfews imposed on Monday contributed to a calm night, though more protests are planned, according to Reuters.
The riots and protests echo many in France's long history of mass demonstrations. From nationwide strikes to student demonstrations, several have brought the country to a standstill, in some cases prompting France's leaders to announce a state of emergency.
Take a look at some of France's biggest and most impactful protests and riots over the past 100 years.
1934 — February 6 riots
War veterans marching with their National Association of War Veterans banderoles at Place de la Concorde, Paris, February, 6th 1934.
Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
Veterans and right-wing demonstrators took to the streets following a government corruption scandal. At least 15 people were killed.
The French Prime Minister at the time resigned the following day, stoking fears of a fascist coup.
1936 — Popular Front strikes
A demonstration in Paris in May, 1936.
AFP via Getty Images
Alongside an economic crisis, fears of a fascist coup after the 1934 riots helped unite left-wing parties and trade unions. Mass strikes and factory occupations in May and June 1936 led to major labor reforms, according to France's National Assembly.
1948 — Miners' strike
Striking miner on October 27, 1948.
-/AFP via Getty Images
In 1948, 300,000 French coal miners went on strike to protest economic conditions, per The New York Times. There was a heavy government crackdown, where some striking miners were killed, and another 3,000 were fired, according to AFP.
1961 — Paris Algerian demonstration and massacre
Algerian demonstrators arrested during the peaceful demonstration wait with their hands above their heads in a bus requisitioned by the police, October 17, 1961.
AFP via Getty Images
About 30,000 Algerians peacefully demonstrated against a curfew and in support of Algeria's independence, according to the BBC.
French police brutally cracked down. Historians estimate that at least 120 Algerians were killed, though some estimates put that number closer to 300, Al Jazeera reported.
1968 — May 1968
Students occupy the Sorbonne in Paris, May 14, 1968.
Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
What started as a student movement demanding university reforms turned into millions of people striking after trade unions joined the uprising.
Between the protests and rioting, the demonstrations brought the nation to a standstill. To restore order, then-president Charles de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly and called early elections, which his party won in June.
In this year's student protests, many banners referenced "May 1968," Time reported.
1986 — Anti-Devaquet student protests
Students demonstrate in Paris, December 6, 1986.
Michel SETBOUN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Hundreds of thousands of students protested proposed university reforms they feared would restrict access to higher education.
Three weeks of violent clashes with police left hundreds injured and 22-year-old Malik Oussekine dead, forcing Prime Minister Jacques Chirac to withdraw the reforms, Time reported.
1995 — Strikes against pension reforms
Tram drivers of the RTM group demonstrate during a strike in Marseille, December 28, 1995.
Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP via Getty Images
Between October and December 1995, public-sector workers went on strike against proposed austerity measures and pension reforms, bringing the country to a standstill, per the Global Nonviolent Action Database.
Then-prime minister Alain Juppé withdrew the proposed changes to public-sector pension plans, though other parts of his reform package went ahead.
2005 — French riots
Firefighters battle a warehouse blaze in Aubervilliers, on the outskirts of Paris, November 4, 2005.
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
After two teenagers died while hiding from the police, riots began in Clichy-sous-Bois, a Parisian suburb, which then spread to other cities, the BBC reported at the time.
The government declared a state of emergency as unrest spread. The riots lasted about three weeks, while the state of emergency ended after about two months.
2018 — Gilets Jaunes
A "yellow vest" anti-government demonstrator in front of French riot police during a protest in Bordeaux, December 29, 2018.
MEHDI FEDOUACH/AFP via Getty Images
"Les Gilets Jaunes," or 'the yellow vests' in English, was a 2018 protest movement against a planned increase in fuel taxes that evolved into broader anti-government demonstrations, leading to deaths.
The French Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, froze the tax hike in December that year and then fully canceled it days later.
2023 — Pension reform protests
Protesters march during a demonstration in Lille, March 23, 2023.
SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images
Hundreds of thousands of people protested and went on strike against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms, which raised the retirement age from 62 to 64, according to Le Monde.
Macron's government enacted the reform despite the protests; the retirement age began rising in September 2023 and is scheduled to reach 64 by 2030.
Saudi Arabia went looking for allies against Ansar Allah, and so far it has gotten statements of support. Egypt has declared its readiness to back the Kingdom, but its statement does not commit to any military involvement. Pakistan and Turkey have pledged troops under the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement signed in August, but both governments say their forces will play “a supportive rather than active combat role” against the Houthis. I have watched coalition pledges like these for decades. Cairo has not forgotten its war in Yemen in the 1960s. Islamabad has its own border with Afghanistan and a restless India to think about. Neither is going to send its soldiers into the mountains of Saada, so Riyadh will be fighting this one essentially alone.
That matters because Ansar Allah has shown it can reach the Kingdom’s economic core. In the past two weeks the Houthis have struck at Aramco facilities near Riyadh, the Shedgum gas plant in the Ghawar corridor, and the Tanajib oil facility on the Gulf coast. They hit an administrative building at Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters, the company’s historic nerve center. Now they are reportedly targeting Yanbu.
Riyadh says little about the damage, and Aramco’s chief executive insists the company’s system is intact and can be restored to its full 12 million barrels a day within days. I don’t believe it. Karl Miller, who is on the ground in the region, tells me the Saudis have suffered significant damage. That matches what we can see from the outside: a coalition that keeps announcing interceptions while fires keep burning at the targets. Repairing gas-processing trains, stabilization units and refinery components is not a matter of days. After the 2019 Abqaiq-Khurais strike, Saudi output fell by 5.7 million barrels a day, and it took about two months to recover from a single attack on an undefended site. This time the attacks are sustained and repeated, and the repair crews are working under fire.
Yanbu is the crucial target. With Iran’s navy declaring the Strait of Hormuz closed except to vessels it authorizes, Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea terminal at Yanbu, fed by the East-West Pipeline, is the Kingdom’s escape route to world markets. Flows through Hormuz fell to 11.62 million barrels a day in the week to October 13, against a baseline of 17.15 million. That bypass is already badly damaged. The East-West Pipeline is designed to carry up to 7 million barrels a day across the peninsula, pushed along by 11 pumping stations. According to my sources in the region, four of those 11 stations have been severely damaged and are not functioning. This did not come out of nowhere. In September, an attack damaged pumping facilities and knocked the pipeline largely out of service, and regional officials told the Associated Press repairs would take three to five weeks. Aramco got the line back up, and it has been hit again. A pipeline missing more than a third of its pumping stations cannot move anything close to its rated volume, however much crude is waiting in the Eastern Province.
Meanwhile Ansar Allah has seized Greater and Lesser Hanish islands and Perim inside the Bab al-Mandab, putting it astride the very sea lanes that tankers leaving Yanbu must use. Damaged production, a crippled pipeline and a contested Red Sea together mean the world loses Saudi barrels three times over: some cannot be produced, some cannot reach the coast, and what reaches the coast cannot be shipped safely.
Diesel is where this hits hardest. Diesel moves the trucks, tractors, trains and ships that carry everything else, and Europe is one of the world’s dominant diesel importers. The International Energy Agency’s October report is blunt. Middle Eastern fuel exports are below half of pre-war levels, and diesel markets “will remain tight well into 2027.” The IEA does not expect lost diesel stocks to be replenished before the second half of 2027. Diesel benchmarks topped $200 a barrel in September and remain nearly double the price of crude, which is itself around $108 for Brent, up more than 75 percent from a year ago. Ukrainian drones keep hitting Russian refineries and export terminals, so Europe’s other traditional source of middle distillates is also impaired.
So when people ask me when diesel supply returns to normal, my answer is not soon. The IEA’s timeline, which does not account for sustained damage to Saudi facilities, points to the second half of 2027 at the earliest. A real recovery is at least a year away, and probably longer.
Don’t expect the Trump-Putin diesel deal to change that. As I have argued before, the Russian barrels are a rounding error. Moscow has cleared 500,000 tons for export, roughly 3.7 million barrels, with no shipping timeline. Even if every tranche Trump announced is delivered, about 4.8 million tons in total, that comes to roughly 36 million barrels spread over months. The first 300,000 tons equals less than one day of American transport diesel demand, and the full program equals less than four. Measured against the world’s lost Middle Eastern distillate exports, it is negligible. It also depends on Russian refineries that Ukrainian drones continue to hit, and on sanctioned tankers to carry it. The deal may make for a good headline. It will not move the supply curve, and so it will not bring down the price of diesel.
Europe is already paying the political price. On Saturday, France saw its worst rioting in years. The CGT union estimated more than 500,000 people in the streets protesting the cost of gasoline, energy and food, and more than 270 were arrested. In Milan, a demonstration against wars and rising living costs ended with barricades on fire and shops looted. Protests over the cost of living have spread to Belgium and Portugal. Albania has had five straight days of violent clashes in Tirana. The immediate trigger there is anger at Prime Minister Edi Rama, but it is part of the same continental mood of people who feel their governments have stopped listening.
This is the context in which Washington is considering new strikes on Iran. The ceasefire collapsed in July and has not been rebuilt. Every round of escalation since then has raised the price of oil, and each one has given Tehran a reason to tighten its grip on Hormuz and its allies in Yemen a reason to widen their target list. Another U.S. campaign will not reopen the Strait. It will further close it. It will push diesel prices back toward their September records just as Europe heads into winter, when heating oil demand peaks.
American policymakers seem to believe the costs of this war can be exported. They cannot. Europe’s economies were already weak before the war. Factories that run on diesel-powered logistics, farmers who need diesel for the harvest, and households that heat with fuel oil cannot absorb another price spike. The riots in Paris and Milan are a warning of what a long diesel shortage does to a society. If Washington widens this war, it will be choosing to make that shortage longer and deeper, and Europe will pay the bill on its streets.
The far-right leader’s promise to restore order will appeal to many ahead of next year’s presidential elections – the stakes are suddenly much higher
There is only one clear winner so far from France’s chaos: Marine Le Pen. The violence and rioting that engulfed towns and cities across the country over the weekend, six months before a pivotal presidential election, is a godsend for the hard-right, Eurosceptical, anti-immigration candidate. As buildings burned, shops were looted and police attacked, the rioting largely drowned out peaceful mass protests over the dilapidated state of schools , fuel prices and the cost of living.
Across France and the rest of Europe, people are in shock at scenes of arson and pillage in city centres, the wrecking of symbols of the republic such as the 19th-century town hall in peaceful provincial Limoges and the bust of Marianne in Marseille’s city hall, and the looting of more than 2,000 shops.
Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre
Le mobilitazioni del 17 ottobre e le violenze che ne hanno accompagnato la fase finale mostrano una Francia attraversata da una crisi sociale e politica profonda. Mentre il macronismo entra nel suo ultimo semestre, Marine Le Pen e Jean-Luc Mélenchon incarnano due risposte radicalmente opposte alla domanda di rottura.
Le immagini degli incendi, delle barricate e degli scontri che hanno attraversato la Francia nelle giornate del 17 e 18 ottobre rischiano di nascondere il dato politicamente più importante: centinaia di migliaia di francesi sono scesi in strada contro il carovita, la crisi dei servizi pubblici e il progressivo deterioramento delle condizioni materiali di vita. Il ministero dell’Interno ha contato circa 550.000 partecipanti alla giornata nazionale del 17 ottobre, mentre gli organizzatori ne hanno rivendicati circa 800.000. Una mobilitazione di dimensioni tali da costituire la più importante esplosione di protesta sociale dai tempi della battaglia contro la riforma delle pensioni del 2023.
Il fenomeno sarebbe tuttavia incomprensibile se venisse ridotto ai disordini che hanno segnato la conclusione di numerosi cortei. Lungi dall’essere nata il 17 ottobre, la protesta rappresenta il risultato di un processo cominciato settimane prima nelle scuole e nelle università, quando studenti e liceali hanno iniziato a denunciare classi sovraffollate, carenza di personale, precarietà e progressivo impoverimento dell’istruzione pubblica. Alle mobilitazioni giovanili si sono poi aggiunti sindacati, lavoratori, pensionati e settori del movimento dei gilets jaunes, mentre il rincaro dei carburanti ha agito da detonatore di un malessere sociale molto più ampio.
Tale convergenza conferisce agli avvenimenti un significato politico ben superiore a quello di un’ennesima fiammata di protesta francese. L’Humanité ha descritto il corteo parigino come l’incontro tra generazioni differenti accomunate dalle rivendicazioni sui salari, sul futuro della gioventù e sulla difesa dei servizi pubblici, ma soprattutto dal rifiuto delle politiche seguite dal 2017. In questo senso appare particolarmente significativa l’immagine proposta dal quotidiano della sinistra francese: il macronismo rischia di terminare così come era cominciato, in mezzo ai lacrimogeni e a un conflitto sociale che il potere politico sembra incapace di ricomporre.
Nel tentativo di distogliere l’opinione pubblica dalle ragioni concrete delle proteste, il primo ministro Sébastien Lecornu ha accusato gruppi dell’ultrasinistra di avere deliberatamente organizzato gli incidenti, arrivando a contrapporre il “campo della Repubblica” a quello dei “casseurs” e indirizzando buona parte delle proprie accuse contro La France Insoumise (LFI), nonostante lo stesso leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon avesse invitato esplicitamente i propri sostenitori a non partecipare a saccheggi e devastazioni. Il Rassemblement National (RN), dal canto suo, ha rapidamente trasformato le immagini dei disordini in materiale di propaganda, cercando di associare la protesta sociale a una crisi dell’autorità e alla necessità di restaurare l’ordine.
È una dinamica che rischia di favorire l’estrema destra, ma che non deve far perdere di vista l’origine della crisi. L’aumento del costo della vita, la stagnazione dei salari, il deterioramento dei servizi pubblici e la nuova impostazione austeritaria del bilancio per il 2027 rappresentano il terreno materiale sul quale la protesta è cresciuta.
La risposta televisiva di Emmanuel Macron del 18 ottobre ha mostrato una volta ancora la difficoltà dell’Eliseo a uscire dalla contraddizione che accompagna ormai l’ultimo periodo della sua presidenza. Il capo dello Stato ha riconosciuto la legittimità delle preoccupazioni espresse dai manifestanti, ma ha a sua volta concentrato una parte importante del proprio intervento sulla condanna delle violenze e sulle questioni di ordine pubblico. Ha annunciato consultazioni con studenti, insegnanti, sindacati, parlamentari e rappresentanti delle imprese, senza però indicare immediatamente una svolta economica capace di rispondere alle cause sociali della protesta.
Messi insieme, tutti questi elementi fanno emergere in modo chiaro la dimensione strutturale della crisi del macronismo. Quando Emmanuel Macron conquistò l’Eliseo nel 2017, promise di superare la tradizionale divisione tra destra e sinistra. La sua formula politica avrebbe dovuto sostituire il conflitto ideologico con una gestione pragmatica, europea e modernizzatrice della società francese. Quasi dieci anni dopo, il risultato appare paradossalmente opposto: la Francia non è meno polarizzata, anzi risulta essere molto più polarizzata di quanto fosse all’inizio della presidenza Macron.
La dissoluzione dell’Assemblée nationale nel 2024 aveva già distrutto l’illusione di una maggioranza presidenziale stabile. Da allora la Francia è entrata in una lunga sequenza di governi minoritari, crisi parlamentari e negoziati sul bilancio. Il governo Lecornu resta privo di una maggioranza autonoma, mentre il progetto finanziario per il 2027 è stato accolto con ostilità dalle opposizioni e con crescente nervosismo dai mercati. All’inizio di ottobre i rendimenti del debito francese avevano raggiunto livelli che non si vedevano dai primi anni Duemila, mentre il debito pubblico ha superato il 119% del prodotto interno lordo e la crescita resta debole.
Ma sarebbe riduttivo interpretare questa situazione come una semplice “crisi del debito”. Il problema fondamentale riguarda piuttosto la distribuzione dei costi della crisi. Il governo continua a presentare l’austerità come una necessità tecnica, mentre la sinistra francese sottolinea come essa rappresenti piuttosto una scelta politica precisa: ridurre la spesa sociale e comprimere i servizi pubblici anziché intervenire sulle grandi fortune, sui profitti e sulle ingenti sovvenzioni concesse alle imprese. Da qui nasce la domanda che attraversa una parte consistente delle piazze francesi: chi deve pagare la crisi?
La risposta del RN è radicalmente diversa. Marine Le Pen tenta di trasformare la crisi del macronismo in una crisi dello Stato, dell’immigrazione e dell’ordine pubblico. Il suo partito cerca di intercettare lo stesso malcontento che alimenta le proteste, ma di orientarlo verso una soluzione nazionalista e securitaria. Sul terreno economico, inoltre, il RN sta tentando di rassicurare i mercati: Le Pen ha recentemente promesso forti riduzioni della spesa pubblica qualora conquistasse l’Eliseo, mentre Jordan Bardella ha difeso un piano volto a tagliare circa 140 miliardi di euro di spesa e a ridurre rapidamente deficit e debito. La pretesa dell’estrema destra di rappresentare una rottura sociale con il macronismo entra quindi in contraddizione con un programma economico che contiene anch’esso una pesante componente austeritaria.
Ad ogni modo, i dati demoscopici mostrano quanto questa contrapposizione stia modificando la politica francese. Le rilevazioni pubblicate nelle ultime settimane indicano Marine Le Pen come candidata nettamente più forte al primo turno, ma contemporaneamente mostrano una crescita di Mélenchon e soprattutto una straordinaria solidità della sua base. Un’indagine Ipsos BVA-Cevipof attribuiva in settembre al candidato di LFI tra il 15,5 e il 17% delle intenzioni di voto, ma con livelli molto più alti tra i giovani: fra i 18 e i 24 anni Mélenchon raggiungeva addirittura il 40%. Un sondaggio successivo, riportato da Reuters, ha delineato perfino scenari nei quali Le Pen e Mélenchon si qualificherebbero insieme per il ballottaggio, estromettendo completamente i candidati dell’area centrista.
Naturalmente manca ancora molto alla primavera del 2027 e ogni previsione resta fragile. Marine Le Pen deve inoltre affrontare ancora l’incognita del proprio contenzioso giudiziario, mentre a sinistra rimangono divisioni profonde tra LFI, socialisti, comunisti ed ecologisti. Ma il dato politico è già evidente: il successore di Macron non sembra destinato a provenire dal blocco che ha governato la Francia nell’ultimo decennio.
La battaglia per l’Eliseo sarà quindi molto più di una competizione tra candidati. Sarà uno scontro attorno all’interpretazione stessa del fallimento macronista. L’estrema destra sostiene che la Francia soffra soprattutto per un deficit di autorità, sovranità e controllo. La sinistra radicale individua invece il problema nella crescente disuguaglianza, nell’austerità, nell’indebolimento dei servizi pubblici e nella subordinazione delle scelte economiche agli interessi del grande capitale. Il campo macronista, nel frattempo, fatica sempre più a convincere che la continuazione delle politiche degli ultimi dieci anni possa rappresentare una risposta alla crisi prodotta proprio durante quel decennio.
After a protest clip went viral, a teenager’s life was torn apart by threats that sent her and her family into hiding. Plus, a book on citizen journalism
Before 24 July, a person I will call R was preoccupied with the ordinary routines of teenage life: experimenting with makeup,grumbling over mathematics homeworkand hanging out with friends at a tea stall.
That month, as the fever of student protests spread across the country, the 15-year-old watched on her phone as young people poured into Jantar Mantar, the designated protest site in Delhi, demanding education reform. She went too. But an 11-second video clip from the protest site, in which she made crude and profane remarks about the prime minister, Narendra Modi, upended her life.
Italy’s government is sending 500 soldiers to Milan and vowed a “firm response from the state” after protests against the cost of living descended into clashes with police, vandalism and looting. Further demonstrations are planned on Saturday.
The government of the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, also announced new security measures, including an offence of violent participation in a demonstration, tougher penalties for rioters, and financial liability for parents whose children take part in vandalism and looting.
Italy’s government is sending 500 soldiers to Milan and vowed a “firm response from the state” after protests against the cost of living descended into clashes with police, vandalism and looting. Further demonstrations are planned on Saturday.
The government of the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, also announced new security measures, including an offence of violent participation in a demonstration, tougher penalties for rioters, and financial liability for parents whose children take part in vandalism and looting.
As Republicans confront mounting political headwinds ahead of November’s midterm elections, Donald Trump is attempting to turn unrest in France into a cautionary tale for American voters, recasting the demonstrations that began as student protests against crumbling schools and the soaring cost of living as evidence of the dangers of immigration and the erosion of western civilization.
At a rally in Kansas on Monday evening, Trump described France as a once-great nation that had been “conquered, looted, and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists, and communists”.
As Republicans confront mounting political headwinds ahead of November’s midterm elections, Donald Trump is attempting to turn unrest in France into a cautionary tale for American voters, recasting the demonstrations that began as student protests against crumbling schools and the soaring cost of living as evidence of the dangers of immigration and the erosion of western civilization.
At a rally in Kansas on Monday evening, Trump described France as a once-great nation that had been “conquered, looted, and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists, and communists”.
Students and Ithaca community members gathered in downtown Ithaca on Oct. 13 for the “I Am Jane Doe” rally to support students’ demands in light of the reopened criminal investigation into the alleged 2024 gang rape of a former Cornell University student by members of the school’s Chi Phi fraternity.
The lawsuit was filed on Sept. 16, two years after the plaintiff, identifying as Jane Doe, was allegedly sexually assaulted and gang raped by seven Chi Phi fraternity brothers.
Since the Cornell Daily Sun, Cornell University’s student-run newspaper, broke the story on Sept. 18, it has received widespread media attention and sparked nationwide anger. This has led to protests across the United States, including on Cornell University’s campus and in the greater Ithaca community.
TRNN student correspondents Lucia Iandolo and Ava Suffredini took to the streets to interview Ithaca students, organizers, and community members in the wake of an international reckoning with sexual assault and rape culture.
Reporting: Lucian Iandolo Videography and Editing: Ava Suffredini Production and Post-Production: Ryan Johnson
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Lucia Iandolo: Students and Ithaca community members have gathered in downtown Ithaca October 13th for the I Am Jane Doe rally to support students’ demands in light of the reopened criminal investigation into the alleged 2024 gang rape of a former Cornell University student by members of the school’s Chi Phi fraternity. The lawsuit was filed on September 16th, two years after the plaintiff identifying as Jane Doe was allegedly sexually assaulted and gang raped by seven Chi Phi fraternity brothers. Since the Cornell Daily Sun, Cornell University student-run newspaper broke the story on September 18th, it has received widespread media attention and sparked nationwide anger. This has led to protests across the United States, including on Cornell University’s campus, Ithaca College’s campus, and in the greater Ithaca community. Can we
Speaker: Demonstrate it over here?
Lucia Iandolo: Many members of the Ithaca community, including businesses and organizations, have spoken out and condemned the Cornell administration’s complicity. Today, the I Am Jane Doe rally is being held to demand accountability from the Cornell administration and advocate for systemic change in relation to sexual assault.
Speaker: From Cornell to LSU. From Cornell to LSU. Survivors, we stand with you. Survivors, we stand with you.
Samara Ferris: We are here to provide support to the Cornell University to also inspire people in other universities and other communities around the US to stand up and fight in their own communities. So we want to echo the student demands because they live it every day. They know.
Speaker: Emphasize our full support and endorsement of all student demands. Cornell students have come up with an exhaustive, extensive list of demands because they know what their school needs.
Jessie Romero Silver: So I think there is a responsibility on the local level to do something because of our proximity to Cornell, but there’s also a responsibility to yourself as well. As a human and as a feminist, I would say if you care about the women around you, you must care about this. And you have to care about this once the media cycle is done, once eyes are not on Cornell anymore. Because my greatest fear is that we are so angry about this, that this is happening on a national level and it’s finally being shown and Cornell is just going to run out the clock until people don’t care anymore and then they don’t have to do anything. So I really want people to step up in this moment, not just because it’s a national story, but because you’re a person, you should care. You have to care.
Speaker: We are here because we demand answers and I refuse to wake up 10 years from now and realize nothing has changed.
Samara Ferris: Everyone’s organizer. I’m not a professional organizer. I’m a business owner. I’m a chef. I’m an organizer. All these amazing people today, they’re organizers. There are artists, there are writers, there are other business owners. Everyone’s an organizer. Everyone can organize something. It can be a teaching. It could be a book club. It can be a dinner after everyone goes to vote. So everybody is an organizer and I think that’s what’s important is that everyone needs to stand up and become an active part of changing culture here and everywhere.
Speaker: We need institutions to do their job when nobody is watching. I’m here as a student, as a man, and as someone with a platform.
Alex Prout: If we’re going to address this issue, men need to care about this and men need to speak up and take action. In the advocacy world, it’s primarily women speaking up and we’re asking people who’ve been traumatized, who’ve been impacted by this to carry the burden of this work, which is inherently unfair. So we need men to stand up and speak up and care.
Speaker: Whose voices we listen to and whether we speak out regardless of what it costs.
Alex Prout: When we talk about sexual violence, a lot of people use the term gender-based violence and also a lot of people think that this is a woman’s issue. It is not a women’s issue. This is a men’s issue.
Speaker: Your administration is not what makes Cornell a prestigious institution. Your courageous, your intelligence, your willingness to talk about an issue that so many people don’t want you to say.
Jessie Romero Silver: People have been talking about rape culture since I was a freshman. And as a freshman coming in to that, it was very easy to just hear this and think this is just another typical part of college and that there’s nothing we can do about it and it’s out of our hands. But there is something that we can do about it. We’ve seen, especially at Cornell’s campus, that students who have spoken out against injustices have lost their time at those colleges, at those institutions, haven’t been able to finish their degree. And it is a fear, but we have to keep going. We have to keep moving forward.
Hundreds rallied in downtown Ithaca for “I Am Jane Doe” after a former Cornell student’s lawsuit alleging she was gang raped by seven Chi Phi fraternity brothers in 2024 sparked national outrage and a reopened criminal investigation.
Unrest across eight countries reveals a growing working-class rejection of public spending cuts.
Across Europe, a widespread wave of public protests and labor strikes unfolded during September and October 2026. Demonstrations took place in major urban hubs across France, Belgium, Italy, Albania, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Germany.
While individual mobilizations emerged from specific domestic triggers, the overarching unrest reflects a shared socioeconomic environment characterized by declining purchasing power, public budget austerity, rising energy prices, and real estate speculation.
The economic backdrop of late 2026 includes sustained structural pressure on working-class households. Energy market shifts driven by international conflicts significantly escalated fuel and electricity costs across the continent, directly inflating the cost of basic consumer goods.
In urban centers, market-driven housing policies and real estate deregulation led to steep increases in residential rents, outstripping wage growth and increasing housing insecurity for young workers and low-income families.
Mainstream institutional coverage frequently characterizes these events through a lens of isolated public order disturbances or temporary economic grievances.
Labor organizations, tenant unions, student groups, and neighborhood alliances have increasingly framed their demands around public resource protection, wage indexation, market regulation, and social welfare preservation.
Protests in Belgium escalate into clashes with Police
🔻 Protests by student and school groups in Belgium over rising education costs and restricted access to higher education turned violent in central Brussels and the city of Liège. Police used tear gas and water cannon to… pic.twitter.com/Nm32hPzgvR
Albania: The Vjosa-Narta Resistance and Sazan Island Mobilizations
In Albania, mass demonstrations began in May 2026 following public controversy surrounding large-scale real estate and luxury tourism developments along ecologically sensitive coastal zones, related to the family of United States President Donald Trump.
Known as the Flamingo Revolution, the protests were initially triggered by foreign investment proposals backed by international private equity firms, including United States-based entities.
These proposals targeted protected areas in the Vjosa-Narta lagoon delta and Sazan Island, a former military territory off the coast of Vlorë.
The movement escalated after an incident on May 30, 2026, when private security personnel physically removed local environmental activists at a development site in Zvërnec.
By June, demonstrations expanded from coastal municipalities into the capital, Tirana. Organized primarily by environmental groups, university student assemblies, and grassroots youth coalitions, the protesters demanded an immediate halt to coastal land privatization, the enforcement of environmental protections under European Union standards, and the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
On June 9, 2026, tens of thousands gathered in central Tirana. In response, Prime Minister Edi Rama publicly dismissed the critique regarding foreign capital involvement, stating in June that the international scrutiny was primarily driven by high-profile political names associated with the investment project rather than environmental policy.
Throughout July and August 2026, daily civic actions maintained a continuous presence in Tirana, marking 100 consecutive days of anti-government demonstrations by September 8, 2026. By mid-September, the focus expanded as university and high school student assemblies joined the broader movement to protest rising living costs, tuition increases, and systemic public corruption.
Tensions culminated between October 13 and October 18, 2026, when thousands of demonstrators assembled outside the Ministry of Education and Prime Minister Rama’s offices. Clashes erupted between protesters and state security forces, leading to the deployment of tear gas and water cannons by law enforcement.
Official police reports confirmed over 160 detentions and nearly 400 individuals charged following widespread civil disobedience and public building blockades in central Tirana.
Massive protests in France against the high cost of living and the deterioration of public services. pic.twitter.com/H3FUK6kcvC
Spain: The Pensioner Eviction and the National Housing Crisis
In Spain, social unrest escalated rapidly on September 21, 2026, surrounding the national housing crisis. On September 23, 2026, police enforced the court-ordered eviction of María del Carmen “Maricarmen” Abascal, an 87-year-old resident in Madrid, following a legal dispute with property investors.
By September 30, 2026, housing collectives and the Madrid Tenants’ Union (Sindicato de Inquilinas e inquilinos de Madrid) established a continuous protest encampment in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, which grew to over 1,200 tents.
Similar encampments emerged in Barcelona’s Plaça de Catalunya and Málaga’s Plaza de la Constitución. According to data from the Youth Council of Spain, average residential rent prices had reached €1,176 per month, absorbing roughly 98.7 percent of the average young worker’s salary following a decade of steady price increases.
Protesters demanded an immediate legal cap on rent prices, a total ban on short-term vacation rentals, the expropriation of residential housing units owned by private investment funds, and the passage of strict tenant protection laws.
The central government headed by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez presented two urgent decree-laws proposing a ban on evictions for vulnerable residents until 2030 and a two-year extension on existing leases.
However, on October 2, 2026, the Spanish Congress rejected the legislation following opposition votes from the People’s Party, Vox, and Together for Catalonia (Junts). Opposition spokesperson Cuca Gamarra argued that affordability could only be achieved through increased residential construction, while Junts spokesperson Míriam Nogueras stated the decree would create legal market uncertainty. In contrast, tenant union representatives called for nationwide general mobilizations to enforce housing rights.
📌KNE: Victory for the struggle of the school students in France! 🔴“Victory for the struggle of the school students in France!”, emphasises the Press Office of the Central Council of KNE in a statement on the large-scale student protests, noting… 🔗https://t.co/sxtH89fNp0…
— International Relations Section of the CC of KKE (@intern_kke) October 5, 2026
France: Educational Strikes and Fuel Price Mobilizations
In France, a distinct wave of social unrest began on September 15, 2026, sparked by sharp increases in retail fuel costs. Driven by regional maritime supply disruptions and international market volatility, average diesel prices in France reached €2.37 per liter, nearing historical highs.
Initial blockades were established by transport workers, agricultural workers, and commercial fishermen who obstructed access to major fuel depots in Frontignan and port facilities in Nice and Sète.
This economic disruption coincided directly with public sector labor actions in secondary and higher education.
On September 18, 2026, teaching staff and suburban education workers across the Île-de-France region initiated strikes over class overcrowding, wage stagnation, and severe administrative budget reductions. Student assemblies subsequently blockaded high schools and university campuses in Paris, Lyon, and Marseille.
The movement saw a broad convergence of trade unions, including the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) and Solidaires, along with student organizations and former Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) networks.
The protesters demanded the immediate indexation of wages to current inflation rates, increased state spending on education and healthcare, and emergency price caps on petroleum products.
In response to the growing disruptions, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced on September 16, 2026, that the government would increase state fuel subsidies to the maximum allowable limit under European Union rules.
When protests continued into October, the government released 10 million barrels of strategic diesel reserves to stabilize market supply, while law enforcement authorities deployed heavy riot control measures, leading to thousands of detentions nationwide.
Zakharova calls out Macron's double standard on protests
Russian MFA spokeswoman says Macron demands "uncompromising" crackdowns on French rioters while the West lectures others on "human rights."
As Limoges City Hall burns, Zakharova notes: the people attacking Europe aren't… pic.twitter.com/mcwYHHfFav
Escalation Across the Mediterranean: Greece and Portugal
Greece: Public Sector Strikes and Anti-Privatization Mobilizations
In Greece, social mobilizations accelerated on September 5 2026, driven by rising electricity tariffs, real estate inflation, and persistent wage stagnation.
The unrest gained momentum following coordinated labor actions organized by the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) and supported by major public sector confederations, including the Civil Servants’ Confederation (ADEDY).
On September 28, 2026, nationwide strikes disrupted public transport, maritime ferry connections between the mainland and Aegean islands, and municipal services.
In Athens, over 45,000 demonstrators marched toward Syntagma Square in front of the Hellenic Parliament. Student assemblies from the National Technical University of Athens and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens joined the marches, blocking central thoroughfares.
Protesters focused their demands on structural economic reforms, including:
• The immediate restoration of collective bargaining rights dissolved under previous austerity frameworks.
• Strict state price controls on essential consumer goods and electricity tariffs.
• Increased public funding for higher education and healthcare infrastructure.
• Direct wage indexation to compensate for post-2022 inflationary losses.
Addressing parliament in late September, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis defended the administration’s fiscal stance, stating that government policy must maintain strict fiscal discipline to ensure sovereign debt stability.
📌Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of the KKE, on the youth protests 🔴In Spain, people are taking to the streets becuase they are being evicted from their homes. In France, because they’re being denied an education. In Greece, students are setting up tents in Syntagma Square… pic.twitter.com/qO5UR3LWoG
— International Relations Section of the CC of KKE (@intern_kke) October 15, 2026
Portugal: The Housing Dignity Movement (Vida Justa)
In Portugal, demonstrations expanded across major urban centers during the first week of October 2026. Catalyzed by the civil movement Just Life (Vida Justa) alongside tenant rights group Door to Door (Porta a Porta) and university student unions, tens of thousands gathered in Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, and Faro.
The central issue driving the protests was real estate speculation and the expansion of short-term tourist accommodations, which had led to significant residential displacement in urban neighborhoods.
According to national statistical reporting, residential property prices in Lisbon had increased by 12.4 percent year-over-year by mid-2026, while median national wages remained under €1,050 per month.
On October 3, 2026, demonstration columns marched along Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon toward the Assembly of the Republic. Speakers at the rally called for immediate state intervention to secure affordable living conditions, demanding:
• An immediate freeze on residential lease renewals and rent price caps indexed to local wage levels.
• The mandatory revocation of tax incentives granted to non-resident foreign real estate investors.
• Substantial state investment in public housing construction.
• An increase in the national minimum wage to €1,000 per month to offset basic living expenses.
Government representatives pointed to existing tax relief programs for young buyers, but grassroots spokespersons rejected these measures as inadequate against systemic market speculation.
Convergence and Expansion: Germany, Italy, and Belgium
Germany: Heating Cost Protests and Urban Rent Freezes
In Germany, demonstrations gathered force across major industrial and urban regions in mid-October, led by trade union factions, tenant associations (Mieterverein), and progressive youth organizations.
The mobilizations were prompted by public sector wage negotiations and sharp increases in seasonal municipal heating and gas bills following regional energy supply realignments.
Protests took place in Berlin, Leipzig, Cologne, and Hamburg. Demonstrators assembled at the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin, calling for:
• Federal legislative caps on natural gas and district heating charges.
• A nationwide five-year freeze on residential rents in cities exceeding strict vacancy limits.
• Higher public investment in municipal transport networks and social housing initiatives.
• Wage increases for public sector employees above the annual core inflation rate.
Federal officials acknowledged the economic burden placed on households, but emphasized that national budgetary constraints limited further large-scale energy price subsidies.
🇪🇸🔥 #MADRID – The Madrid teachers' demonstration, on the first day of the call for an unlimited strike, links up with the encampment at Plaza del Sol – who have been there since late September 2026 for the right to housing, against tenant evictions, against the surge in prices…
Italy: The “Italia in Piazza” General Strike and Cost-of-Living Mobilization
In Italy, social tension culminated on October 17, 2026, in a coordinated general mobilization organized under the banner “Italy in the Square” (Italia in Piazza). The action was spearheaded by grassroots trade unions, including the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) and COBAS, alongside student collectives and housing rights coalitions.
Demonstrations affected major urban centers, including Rome, Milan, Turin, and Naples. In Milan, an estimated 60,000 people marched through the city center, resulting in the temporary suspension of public transit lines and commercial activity.
Protesters cited declining real wages, cuts to basic social protection mechanisms, and rising utility prices as the primary drivers of the mobilization.
Key demands raised by Italian protest organizers included:
• An immediate statutory minimum wage of €10 per hour.
• The automatic reintroduction of wage indexation tied to inflation metrics (scala mobile).
• Increased public funding for national healthcare (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale) and public transit systems.
• A moratorium on residential evictions involving primary residences for low-income households.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni issued a statement from Rome, characterizing the disruptions as politically motivated actions designed to destabilize public order during delicate national budget negotiations.
MILAN RIOTS 🙏🔥 🇮🇹
Milan is experiencing weekend unrest that began as cost-of-living protests and escalated into looting, vandalism, and clashes with police.
On Saturday and Sunday (17–19 October 2026), demonstrations in Milan and other northern Italian cities (including Turin… pic.twitter.com/GuQVFDoahE
Belgium: Public Service Strikes and Educational Budget Mobilizations
Simultaneously, on October 17, 2026, Belgium experienced significant public sector disruptions centered in Brussels and Liège. Organized by joint trade union fronts (FGTB/ABVV and CSC/ACV) in coordination with secondary and higher education student unions, the actions brought together public transport operators, municipal sanitation staff, and academic workers.
In Brussels, thousands of demonstrators gathered near the European Quarter, marching toward the federal parliament building. The movement focused on rising urban living costs and proposed structural spending cuts to secondary and university educational systems.
Protesters demanded:
The full preservation and enforcement of Belgium’s automatic wage indexation system across all employment sectors.
Increased federal budget allocations for public education, student housing, and public transit.
Legislative action to curb commercial energy price speculation and residential real estate inflation.
Federal government spokespersons stated that maintaining current fiscal trajectories was necessary to adhere to European Union public debt standards, while indicating a willingness to continue sector-specific labor dialogue.
Institutional Reactions and State Repression vs. Protesters’ Demands
As demonstrations converged across the European continent through mid-October 2026, state authorities responded with a combination of security deployments, judicial actions, and public condemnations.
Government officials framed the widespread public disruptions as threats to political stability and fiscal order, while protest coalitions emphasized that state actions prioritized debt constraints and elite economic interests over the material needs of the population.
In France, the executive branch adopted an uncompromising stance. President Emmanuel Macron publicly criticized what he described as “unbridled violence” following the escalation of high school blockades, fuel port disruptions, and urban demonstrations.
Interior Ministry directives led to the widespread deployment of specialized CRS riot control units, water cannons, and tear gas in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Limoges.
Law enforcement agencies reported making between 1,800 and 2,400 detentions nationwide by mid-October, with human rights monitoring groups and legal collectives expressing concern over indiscriminate police tactics, pre-emptive arrests, and severe injuries sustained by secondary school students.
In Southern Europe, local administrations similarly sought to delegitimize the protest movements. In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government characterized the “Italia in Piazza” general strike as a politically motivated attempt by opposition factions to destabilize the nation during crucial state budget negotiations.
Police forces in Milan and Rome deployed water cannons and heavy cordons to clear key arterial roads and transit hubs blocked by union members and youth assemblies. In Albania, Prime Minister Edi Rama argued that persistent anti-government and student demonstrations—initially sparked by the “Flamingo Revolution” against coastal real estate privatization in Sazan and Vjosa-Narta—endangered the country’s economic integration and accession standing with the European Union.
Albanian authorities utilized water cannons and tear gas against university student blockades in Tirana, leading to dozens of detentions and criminal charges.
Across Spain and Portugal, state responses highlighted severe institutional divisions over economic reform. While Spanish local police enforced court-ordered evictions in Madrid and cleared public squares, parliamentary opposition parties blocked proposed national lease extensions and eviction bans.
In Portugal, government spokespersons maintained that market-based housing strategies and tax incentives for foreign buyers were necessary to attract capital, directly rejecting the Vida Justa movement’s demands for immediate rent controls and foreign investment caps.
From Localized Grievances to Pan-European Class Solidarity
What began as distinct domestic actions, resistance against speculative real estate projects on Albania’s protected coastline, outrage over elderly evictions and surging rents in Spain, and secondary school labor strikes over state underfunding in France, rapidly converged into a interconnected continental mobilization.
This convergence reflects shared structural drivers: the systematic erosion of real wages, the commodification of urban housing, the decline of essential public services under sustained fiscal austerity, and the compounding impact of energy inflation.
Across national borders, working-class households, student coalitions, and independent trade unions have consistently targeted the policy frameworks that prioritize fiscal deficit targets and private asset protection over public welfare and living standards.
The organizational strategy of the autumn 2026 movements highlights a shift in popular mobilization methods. By utilizing decentralized communications, student assemblies, neighborhood collectives, and grassroots trade union alliances, protest networks frequently bypassed established political parties.
This organizational horizontalism enabled rapid, cross-sector coordination—demonstrated by the simultaneous national strikes and urban blockades in France, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal on October 17, 2026.
As winter approaches, the continued alignment of labor unions, housing organizations, and youth movements suggests that Europe’s autumn of discontent may mark the beginning of a sustained, pan-European struggle for structural economic reform, market regulation, and social welfare preservation.
Sources: TeleSUR – Al Jazeera – Democracy Now – BBC – DW – France 24 – EFE – AFP – AP – The guardian – El País – El Mundo – La Radio del Sur – La República – RTVE – Xinhua – CGTN – Press TV – Anadolu Agency – RT – TRT World
The scenes of social unrest and violence at the weekend are an ominous portent, ahead of elections which may deliver a far-right presidency
In Emmanuel Macron’s book Revolution, published ahead of the 2017 presidential election that he went on to win, he promised to restore hope to a country that was losing faith in its future. As Mr Macron’s lame-duck second term enters its last phase against a quasi-insurrectionary backdrop of torched public buildings and looted shops, the failure of that political project appears total.
The worst scenes of urban violence for years overshadowed a weekend of protest that gravely undermined what is left of the French president’s authority. As police lost control of the streets, more than 2,000 shops were ransacked. Far-left groups targeted town halls and local buildings, and engaged in pitched battles with the police, whose disastrously heavy-handed response to last week’s high school protests has succeeded only in escalating tensions.
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The near-universal chorus of condemnation that greeted Emmanuel Macron’s address to the nation on Sunday, after one of the most violent days of rioting and looting in France’s recent history, was a stark reflection of just how weakened he now is.
Speaking from his office at the Élysée Palace, the president delivered an eight-minute speech expressing “anger and shame” after a weekend in which a town hall was set ablaze, 2,000-plus shops were looted, 2,300 people were arrested and 1,000 police injured.
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