Amid a wave of diverse local grievances, protests have erupted across Southern and Western Europe this week, sweeping through France, Albania, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Greece.
Demonstrations against living costs and school conditions have rocked France since late September, with many turning violent. Meanwhile, Albania has entered its fifth day of anti-government riots and protests over general economic conditions have taken place in Milan and in several cities in Portugal.
Spanish protests targeted housing affordability and the right to housing, while motor oil refinery workers in Greece gathered over demands for better workplace safety.
President Donald Trump has spoken out about the riots in France, blaming the disorder there on “the immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts.” He urged France to close its borders in a post on Truth Social on Sunday.
U.S. embassies have issued warnings about the protests to Americans in France, Albania and Belgium at different points this month.
France
France has seen weeks of disorder across the country since mid-September, when teachers at Saint-Exupéry High School in Créteil, in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, went on strike over staff shortages. After a few days, students started blockading the school in solidarity, over education conditions.
The movement gained traction in Paris before it spread to the rest of country and evolved to include broader economic dissatisfaction. Energy and food prices have spiked dramatically in recent months—household budgets have been squeezed by energy prices, 21.3 percent higher in September than a year earlier, and a 25.7 percent rise in petrol prices, according to the national statistics agency INSEE. Unemployment reached 8.3 percent in the second quarter, up from 7.6 percent from last year.
On Saturday, at least 550,000 people took the streets all over France, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, who said 1,800 people were arrested and more than 500 police officers and firefighters were injured.
Shops were looted while cars and trash cans were set alight in multiple cities. A city hall built in 1883 in Limoges, around 250 miles south of Paris, was largely destroyed after it was engulfed in flames.
Vice President JD Vance shared footage of the 143-year-old burning and blamed "western liberals" for "import[ing] the third world" in a Sunday post on X, telling Americans that this is the "future congressional Democrats seek for your country." Neither Trump nor Vance have offered evidence for linking the protests to immigration.
Many of the crowds on Saturday had responded to calls on social media to revive the "yellow vest" movement, which emerged in 2018 against social injustice and many protesters could be seen wearing the symbolic fluorescent tops.
Nuñez is one of several French officials who has blamed "extremely violent, radical far-left groups" for stoking violence in the demonstrations, many of which have started out peacefully.
...
Albania
Protests in Albania have escalated after high school and university students joined a broader anti-government movement calling for Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama’s resignation.
This week follows months of rallies in Tirana organized by the so-called "Flamingo" movement. The movement was launched in opposition to a major luxury tourism development on Albania’s southern coast linked to an investment firm founded by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
On Saturday, protesters hurled rocks, petrol bombs, flares and fireworks at police, who responded with tear gas, water cannon and baton charges. Police said 167 people had been arrested and 132 officers injured during the unrest.
Rama, who has held office since 2013 and is serving his fourth term, has ruled out resigning. He accused his conservative opponents of inciting the clashes.
...
Italy
On Saturday, protesters clashed with police, looted stores and set property on fire in Milan, in a demonstration against wars and rising living costs.
Although it began peacefully, violence eventually broke out with masked protesters throwing stones, paving blocks and other objects at riot police as well as setting fire to barricades made from bar tables. Police used water cannons and tear gas.
At least two police officers were injured and about 50 demonstrators, including many minors, were detained, the LaPresse news agency reported.
Milan’s center-left mayor, Giuseppe Sala, said “the reasons for the protests were understandable. The violence against law enforcement and serious damage to the city are not justifiable.”
...
Portugal
Tens of thousands of people marched through Lisbon on Saturday, against living costs and the ongoing housing crisis, according to figures from Portugal's biggest union, CGTP.
Housing activists in the northern city Porto recently set up a tent camp that was eventually cleared by police.
Like its European neighbors, Portugal has been hit by rising food and fuel costs amid inflation that has risen amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, the Russia-Ukraine war and their impact on global markets.
But Portugal is also facing one of Europe’s worst housing affordability crises—house prices have risen 130 percent since 2013, according to a June report from the European Commission Joint Research Centre, which classed Portugal as “one of the least affordable" countries in the EU. Meanwhile, new lease rent is up 10.2 percent from the year before, Portugal’s national statistics institute reported.
Protesters in Lisbon on Saturday spoke out against upcoming increases in their rent that they cannot afford, with teacher Pedro Penilo telling Reuters the country’s leaders are "out of touch with reality."
While the Portuguese government has acknowledged “the housing problem as a very serious problem,” as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Carlos Abreu Amorim said in parliament on Friday, it has warned citizens against carrying out the same disorder seen in other European countries. Prime Minister Luís Montenegro rejected “importing climates of instability and protest to Portugal, which have no basis in Portuguese society.”
...
Spain
This week became the third that hundreds of people occupied Madrid's Puerta del Sol, a famous square in the center of the city, in protest of housing costs, which were triggered by the eviction and subsequent death of María del Carmen Abascal.
The 87-year-old woman, who used a wheelchair, was carried on a stretcher from her Madrid home of seven decades after police cordoned off the street and removed protesters. She was taken to a hospital because of her fragile health and died later this month. Her cause of death has not yet been revealed.
Madrid’s regional government has demanded the removal of the hundreds of campers and taken legal action.
On Friday, the Sol Metro station had to be shut for cleaning because of unsanitary conditions from the encampment, Spanish news agency EFE reported.
...
Greece
In Greece, refinery workers gathered outside the facilities of the energy and oil-refining company Motor Oil on Wednesday over workplace safety.
The demonstration came after two employees were killed in an explosion at the refinery, during maintenance operations, according to the outlet Greek Reporter. Workers called for an investigation into the deaths and better enforcement of safety regulations.
Motor Oil announced the deaths with “deep sadness,” it said in a statement, saying they died after being “seriously injured” in an “accident…despite all the efforts of the doctors.”
"The Management and all employees of the company express our sincere condolences and our commitment to stand by the victim's family," it said, adding that the firm is cooperating with authorities investigating the incident.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Anthony Murray and Ben Kelly.