Tuesday 20th October, 2026
A massive wave of youth-led and anti-austerity protests is sweeping across several European countries. It is driven by a host of issues including soaring cost of living, housing unaffordability, discontent with public services, and resentment at governments’ economic policies that are not beneficial to ordinary people. Protests in France, Italy, Belgium, Albania, Portugal and Spain are not part of a single, centrally organised movement, although the international media often lump them together. All of them however reveal a growing frustration over young people’s prospects and the increasing cost of living in Europe.
No country is immune from what social scientists describe as the cross-border diffusion of discontent and protests. Agitations could have a domino effect across national borders. We have witnessed waves of youth-led protests, in this part of the world, affecting Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and India. Protesters brought down governments in Bangladesh and Nepal and ousted a Sri Lankan President, causing a subsequent regime change. One may recall that four African countries saw their governments or long-serving rulers fall during the Arab Spring uprisings of 2010–2012.
Main causes of unrest in Europe can be divided into three broad categories. People are facing an unbearable cost-of-living squeeze, with rising prices, expensive energy and housing costs exerting enormous pressure on household budgets. The youth have a diminishing confidence in the future; they are concerned about employment, education, housing and, above all, whether they can achieve financial independence. Then, there is growing public anger over government priorities which are widely considered misplaced.
In Belgium and France, austerity and public spending priorities have driven unions and students to the streets. In Albania, corruption allegations and demands for political accountability are key factors fuelling protests. In Portugal and Spain housing is a central grievance of protesters. The causative factors however are far more complicated.
What is unfolding in Europe portends trouble for the developing world, where people are facing much worse socio-economic problems than their European counterparts. Sri Lanka ranks 120th out of 130 countries in monthly minimum wages in US dollars, according to data compiled by Visual Capitalist from International Labour Organization (ILO) statistics. Its monthly minimum wage (USD 200) has placed it among the lowest globally and at the bottom among surveyed South Asian nations, behind Pakistan (68th at USD 570), Nepal (78th at USD 490), Bangladesh (89th at USD 379), and India (111th at USD 233). Sri Lanka has the highest rate of unemployment among young people with post-secondary education in the Asian economies covered by an International Monetary Fund (IMF) comparison, with about 43% of those aged 15–24 in this category unemployed. The cost of living is increasing, with taxes and tariffs remaining extremely high. Sri Lanka has the highest household electricity tariffs in South Asia.
When economic grievances deepen in a country, with public confidence in the political establishment eroding, people’s resentment tends to find expression in street protests. In 1953, an attempt by the then UNP government to reduce subsidies, which amounted to about 20% of its total expenditure, and the resultant increase in the price of rice led to a hartal that almost brought about a regime change. An austerity drive, among other things, led to the downfall of the United Front government in 1977. Shortages of essentials fuelled the 2022 Aragalaya.
The biggest challenge facing the JVP-NPP government is to find a way to ease the unbearable economic burden on the irate public while raising enough revenue to meet the targets set by the IMF. This is a high-wire act. Rhetoric, political theatre and more promises will be of little avail. People are crying out for relief. Pro-government demonstrations may give the rulers a false sense of security but they cannot help stem the tide of public anger.