New Delhi:
Major protests have been reported from many countries in recent days, with some of them continuing to simmer and spread. From France to Argentina, many of these protests seemed to be over issues that have been commonly seen in nearly every nation, issues such as economic strain linked to housing costs, inflation, public-service funding and anti-incumbency.
France and Albania at the moment face the most serious challenges to their policies from wave after wave of protesters, leading to situations that could spread like wildfire. We look at some of these protests.
Massive protests have broken out in France due to two reasons concerning government policies linked to anger over high prices ahead of the presidential election, and a massive student and teacher movement protesting school conditions as well as education funding cuts. The election will put the curtains down on President Emmanuel Macron since the country's laws make him ineligible to contest any more.
The France student crisis began last month as a small, localised protest to demand education funding by both teachers and students in Paris before it spread to a larger area. Violent clashes have been reported ever since the protest began, with classes disrupted in many areas.
Today, it has turned into a massive protest over rising fuel prices and cost of living. French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told the news channel France 24 that 5.5 lakh people took part in the protests against dwindling purchasing power, with 1.10 lakh coming out on the streets of Paris alone.
In Belgium, rising household expenses amid a cut in public spending have also sparked protests by students, who do not want to pay higher education or university registration charges. This escalated into protests over cost of living concerns across Belgium.
Yesterday, clashes broke out between protesters and the police in Brussels and Liege, forcing the police to use water cannons against them. Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin called it "pure and simple violence, organised and repeated to destabilise our society" and termed the protesters as "rioters."
In Portugal, thousands of people marched in Lisbon over rising cost of living combined with low pay and difficulty in getting affordable housing. In Lisbon and many other cities, property prices have more than doubled since 2017 while rents for new leases have risen by nearly as much.
This has placed younger workers and lower-income households under pressure with many feeling the problem goes beyond the inability to buy a house but also rental living becoming increasingly unaffordable.
Unlike the French protesters, the Portuguese marches have remained confined to issues like wages, housing and household affordability.
In Italy too, the same issues seen in other parts of Europe appear to be happening with many protesting over rising living costs while their purchasing power has been falling. Clashes were reported in Milan in protests over stagnant wages, inflation and the difficulty of meeting everyday expenses, though the Italian protests were smaller than the incidents in France.
Albania has also come under fire from its students over the bad conditions of their universities, high education costs, and lack of financial assistance and employment opportunities after graduation.
The protest turned violent outside the Education Ministry in Tirana on October 13. They threw bricks and concrete blocks at the building which drew a police response in the form of a crackdown.
Soon, the demands widened to include concerns over inequality, unemployment and the gap between rich and poor. The protests have placed the government under pressure from a generation concerned about whether their economy can provide work after graduation.
In India, the Opposition parties and a newly formed satirical political group called 'Cockroach Janta Party' (CJP) - which has the backing of the Opposition parties - have been leading protests against the government over what they alleged were irregularities in the revision of voter rolls under an exercise called Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
The CJP, led by a foreign-educated public relations graduate and a few others who have openly supported the Congress and its leaders including Rahul Gandhi, had protested over the NEET exam paper leak which eventually forced Dharmendra Pradhan to resign as Union Education Minister.
The Election Commission of India has denied all the allegations on the SIR.
In the US, rallies organised by the 'No Kings' network opposed to President Donald Trump were held in cities and communities across the country, with an aim of getting people out to vote early in the midterm elections.
The events were billed as nonpartisan, though they sought to build on nearly two years' worth of 'No Kings' marches and demonstrations by people upset with Trump's presidency.
In Argentina earlier this week, protesters clashed with the police in Buenos Aires over budget-slashing President Javier Milei's higher education spending. The main protests outside parliament by thousands of university students and staff, trade unionists and opposition activists remained peaceful, though dozens of mostly hooded demonstrators who broke away from the crowd threw stones and other projectiles at the police.
It was the fifth protest over the education funding crisis since Milei took power in late 2023. It comes after multiple court rulings ordering the government to comply with a 2025 law that requires him to plow more money into public universities.
In Turkey, retirees and labour groups held protests against severe cost-of-living pressures and inadequate pension payouts amid sustained inflation last month. Pensioners gathered outside the Constitutional Court in Ankara to demand their constitutional right to live with dignity and meet basic household expenses.
During the demonstration, Ali Sekeroglu, a 60-year-old retired police officer draped in a Turkish flag and holding a placard reading "Not for money, but for our honour," shot himself with his service weapon after speaking about his financial struggles and two unemployed sons.