Last updated: Nov. 4, 2026. Newest events first.
France’s main union federations strike on Thursday, Nov. 5, with rail workers joining, against a 2027 budget that seeks €54 billion in savings and freezes civil servants’ pay, Sortiraparis reported. Police in Paris have banned the unions’ preferred Bastille-to-Concorde route, and the unions are challenging that in court. The strike is the next stop in a protest wave that began with a high school walkout on Sept. 21 and has reached at least nine European countries. In Serbia, a student-backed list has already won a national election. Spain votes early, on Nov. 29, after housing protests brought down the government’s plans. Spanish unions strike on Nov. 11, and student unions in Britain and Italy plan a day of action on Nov. 20.
Coming up
| Date | Country | Event |
|---|---|---|
| Nov. 5 | France | General strike and marches called by all major union federations, rail unions included |
| Nov. 11 | Spain | General strike called by major unions |
| Nov. 20 | Britain and Italy | Student unions’ day of action on the cost of education |
| Nov. 29 | Spain | Snap general election |
Where the protests are
| Country | What set it off | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| France | A Sept. 21 school walkout over teacher shortages and conditions; then wages and the 2027 budget | Turnout down from 550,000 (Oct. 17) to 320,000 (Oct. 31), by official counts; general strike Nov. 5 |
| Spain | The eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, 87, after her rent rose from €500 to €2,650 | Parliament rejected the government’s housing decrees; snap election Nov. 29; general strike Nov. 11 |
| Serbia | Student protests since a station canopy collapse in Novi Sad killed 16 in November 2024 | The Student List won the Oct. 25 election with more than half the vote; Aleksandar Vučić conceded |
| Italy | Student occupations over school conditions, joined by truckers over fuel costs | 500 extra troops in Milan; new offense of violent protest, up to five years in prison |
| Germany | Living costs, education cuts and a possible return of compulsory military service | Oct. 31 marches in more than 30 cities; violence in Frankfurt and Cologne |
| Portugal | Rents, and a bill that would make evictions easier | Nightly gatherings in Lisbon’s Rossio Square; marches on Oct. 31 |
| Albania | A Kushner-backed resort plan, then tuition fees and corruption | 272 injured in six days of clashes to Oct. 18; Prime Minister Edi Rama refuses to resign |
| Belgium | Living costs and public services | Police used tear gas and water cannon in Brussels |
| Greece | Education funding and living costs | Students and teachers marched across the country, including outside parliament in Athens |
The backdrop is similar almost everywhere. France’s deficit runs at 5.4% of GDP, according to Latin Times, and French bond yields reached their highest level since 2002 in October, CNN reported, which leaves the governments facing the largest protests with little money to offer. “I see so many more similarities than differences,” Alice de Brito, vice president of France’s main student union, told CNN, listing education funding, living costs and housing.
Event log
Nov. 4. On the eve of the strike, Paris police banned the unions’ planned march from Bastille to Concorde and set a route from Place de la République to Place de la Nation instead. The unions are challenging the ban in court, Sortiraparis reported. All major union federations now back the strike, which began as a call by the CFDT, CGT, FO, UNSA and FSU on Oct. 5. Their demands are pay rises across the board and a revision of the 2027 budget.
Oct. 31. France held its third weekend of marches. The Interior Ministry counted 320,000 protesters, 70,000 of them in Paris, and police made more than 560 arrests, NBC News and CNN reported. About 70,000 police were deployed. In Germany, the “Gen Z has got this!” movement marched in more than 30 cities against living costs, education cuts and a possible return of conscription; organizers claimed 120,000 people. In Frankfurt, rioters smashed shop windows, looted a gun store and threw Molotov cocktails at police, and in Berlin just under 60 people were detained and 27 officers lightly injured, CNN reported. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt blamed “violent left-wing groups and troublemakers from migrant communities,” without elaborating. Thousands also marched in Lisbon, and student and worker protests were held in Turin, Bologna and Milan.
Oct. 25. Serbia’s Student List, the slate chosen by the country’s long-running youth protest movement, won more than half the vote in parliamentary elections. Most opposition parties had stood aside for it, and Aleksandar Vučić conceded shortly after polls closed, NPR reported. The movement grew out of protests over the November 2024 collapse of a station canopy in Novi Sad that killed 16 people.
Oct. 24. About 410,000 people marched across France, by the Interior Ministry’s count, and police made about 1,300 arrests, NBC News reported.
Oct. 21. Students and teachers marched across Greece, including outside parliament in Athens, chanting for “public, free education” from “Greece to France,” CNN reported, citing Reuters. French bond yields hit their highest level since 2002.
Oct. 20 (Portugal). Police in Lisbon arrested 55 people in an early-morning clearance of protesters camped in Rossio Square, where crowds had gathered every evening that week over rents and an eviction bill, CNN reported.
Oct. 20 (Italy). Italy’s government approved a decree sending 500 more soldiers to Milan through the end of the year, making parents pay for damage caused by minors, and creating a new offense of violent participation in a demonstration, punishable by up to five years in prison, the AP reported. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the number of young rioters “painful and frightening.”
Oct. 19. President Trump said at the White House that the turmoil in France and Italy was “not about school” but about migrants who “hate the country,” Al Jazeera reported. Emmanuel Macron later criticized “stupid comments by many, including foreign leaders” and said there was no evidence of foreign interference. French authorities have not linked the unrest to migration and do not release the identities of people arrested and sent to trial, Al Jazeera reported.
Oct. 18. Albanian police fired water cannon and tear gas as anti-government protests in Tirana entered a sixth day. Protesters, angry over university conditions, tuition fees and corruption, attacked a police station and the governing Socialist party’s headquarters. The interior ministry put the injured at 272 since the protests began, including 169 police. Prime Minister Edi Rama refused to resign and blamed external influences, AFP reported via Arab News.
Oct. 17. France’s largest day so far. The Interior Ministry counted about 550,000 marchers and unions claimed 800,000. Nearly 2,400 people were arrested, the most for a single protest day since the Yellow Vest peak of December 2018, and about 1,000 police and gendarmes were injured, according to Interior Ministry figures reported by Latin Times. Arsonists gutted the town hall in Limoges. In Milan, about 2,000 young people rioted, looting stores in the central shopping district. Milan police said they included many naturalized Italians born to foreign parents and foreign nationals, and more than 30 of the roughly 50 people arrested that weekend were minors, the AP reported.
Oct. 7. Students occupied a high school in Rome. The first line of their statement read “like in France,” CNN reported. Italy’s education minister, Giuseppe Valditara, said the situation in Italy was “very different from France.”
Oct. 5. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a general election for Nov. 29, ending the term more than six months early, after parliament voted down his two housing decrees, CNN reported. Hundreds of people had been camped in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol for more than a week over the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old who had lived in her home for more than 70 years.
Sept. 21. Students at Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Créteil, southeast of Paris, walked out over unfilled teaching posts, run-down classrooms and overcrowded timetables, Latin Times reported. Unions and the revived Yellow Vests joined the movement in early October.
Who governments say is behind it
Officials in several countries have pointed at outsiders. Germany’s interior minister blamed left-wing groups and “troublemakers from migrant communities,” and the interior minister of Hesse said about 100 “clearly identified left-wing extremists” had infiltrated the Frankfurt march, CNN reported. Trump blamed migrants. Rama blamed external influences. Italy’s education minister has repeated a claim that the French unrest stems from difficulty integrating second-generation migrants into schools, CNN reported.
The public record is thin. France does not release who has been arrested. Italy’s figures, from Milan police, describe one night of rioting in one city. The protesters’ own demands, where they have been written down, are domestic: living costs, education funding and conscription in Germany, pay and the budget in France, caps on rent rises in Portugal. None of the demands reported by these outlets mention migration.
Sources:
- Sortiraparis, “Strike and demonstration in Paris on November 5” (Nov. 4, 2026). Used for: the unions, demands, €54 billion savings, the route ban.
- CNN, “Germany blames infiltrators as Gen Z protests turn violent” (Nov. 1, 2026). Used for: Germany, Dobrindt, Hesse, France and Portugal on Oct. 31.
- NBC News, “Massive protests sweep Europe over cost of living and strained public services” (Oct. 31, 2026). Used for: French turnout and arrests on Oct. 24 and 31, Belgium.
- NPR, “‘The smell of freedom’: Serbia’s student movement celebrates election triumph” (Oct. 26, 2026)
- Latin Times, on France’s protest wave and the Nov. 5 strike (Oct. 25, 2026). Used for: the Créteil walkout, Oct. 17 Interior Ministry figures, the deficit.
- CNN, “Gen Z are leading the European protests. Here’s why they’re angry” (Oct. 24, 2026). Used for: de Brito, Rome, Greece, Portugal, bond yields, Valditara, the November strike dates.
- Al Jazeera, “‘Stupid talk’: France rejects Trump’s attempt to blame unrest on migration” (Oct. 22, 2026)
- AP via NY1, “Italy’s Meloni approves tougher measures to crack down on protests after Milan riots” (Oct. 20, 2026)
- AFP via Arab News, “Albanian PM refuses to quit as violent protests enter sixth day” (Oct. 18, 2026)
- CNN, “Spain snap election: PM Sanchez calls November election amid growing housing protests” (Oct. 5, 2026)