Analysis: Europe — 31 October 2026
Youth protests spread across Europe after French school riots
All over Europe, young people have taken to the streets. France’s student protests drew the most attention after they descended into rioting, looting and the torching of public buildings. In recent weeks there have also been demonstrations, some violent, in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Germany and Austria. In Serbia, a two-year student movement has just won a general election, ending Aleksandar Vučić’s long rule. Immediate triggers differ — schools in France and Belgium, housing in Spain and Portugal, living costs in Italy, corruption in Serbia — but UnHerd’s Thomas Fazi argues the common root is a generation that believes it has been robbed of a future.
The background is a collapsed social contract. In France, the over-60s, about a quarter of the population, hold around 60 per cent of national wealth and receive nearly two-thirds of social spending; the average retiree now has a higher income than the average worker. Quantitative easing inflated assets held by older cohorts while wages stagnated. Labour-market reforms in Italy, Germany and France protected insiders and left newcomers on temporary contracts. After 2010, austerity hit education and public investment while existing pensions were largely shielded. EU leaders recently tasked the Commission with finding another €70 billion for Ukraine in 2027, on top of €45 billion already earmarked, even as fiscal rules unused for schools are bent for defence.
The tension is interpretive as well as material. Conservative commentators have focused on second-generation involvement in French and Italian looting; Fazi says the peaceful economic demands go largely unheard. The same generation also votes in growing numbers for the anti-immigration right: a third of under-25s backed Rassemblement National in France’s 2024 election, and more than a quarter of young German men voted AfD last year. Young people are a minority in every European society and cannot win on a generational platform. Whether any major party will challenge the EU fiscal architecture that Fazi says favours asset holders over new wage earners remains open.
Sources: UnHerd.
France GDP contracts as eurozone headline growth masks a core stall
Eurozone preliminary Q3 GDP rose 0.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter, beating the 0.2 per cent forecast, and 1.3 per cent year-on-year. InvestingLive notes the catch: growth slowed from 0.6 per cent in the second quarter, and the core did not drive the beat. Ireland expanded 5.5 per cent, a reading distorted by multinational contract manufacturing and global profits that largely flow to foreign shareholders. Spain and the Netherlands grew 0.6 per cent. Germany managed 0.2 per cent, Italy stagnated at 0.0 per cent, and France contracted 0.1 per cent. The same session, Italy’s October preliminary CPI jumped to 5.4 per cent year-on-year against 4.6 per cent expected; regulated energy inflation surged from 25.8 per cent to 59.5 per cent.
The largest members are combining weak output with renewed price pressure. Inflation heated up in France, Spain and Italy even as German state readings cooled. In Italy, unprocessed food accelerated to 7.5 per cent and goods inflation jumped to 7.5 per cent, while services stayed more contained at 2.9 per cent. For the ECB, pausing after September’s hike with the deposit rate at 2.50 per cent, the mix is a stagflationary squeeze: energy costs feeding prices while weighing on activity. Ireland’s volatility means the bloc-wide surprise overstates domestic demand in the big four.
The open question is the fourth quarter. Headline growth looks firmer than feared, but France’s contraction follows earlier weakness, and Italian energy inflation is spilling into food and transport. If oil stays high, December hike pricing and already-fragile French bonds will collide with households already on the streets.
Sources: InvestingLive.