Rebellion for reason: Youth protests in Europe are getting out of control
The decision of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call early elections, which he announced on October 5, is unlikely to stop the wave of discontent that has risen due to the housing crisis, experts believe. The youth protests quickly escalated into nationwide rallies involving tens of thousands of people. Now a similar chain is being launched in France. It all started with the actions of high school students against the conditions of education, then teachers and civil servants joined them. Discontent is fueled by Sebastian Lecorny's draft budget, which suggests reducing the government's social obligations. The FSU trade unions told Izvestia that new rallies and strikes are likely in the near future. This may lead to the resignation of the Lecorn government and even the dissolution of the National Assembly. What the crises in neighboring countries have in common is in the Izvestia article.
Early elections in Spain
The protests in Spain and France have a common source — the feeling of European youth that they are not able to live a normal life right now, and not in some abstract future. In Spain, the main theme of the protests is the unavailability of housing: the cost of rent is growing much faster than income. In France, the spark was school protests against the shortage of teachers, overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated buildings, but, in fact, it is the same story about the deterioration of basic living conditions, dissatisfaction with the quality of public services and the social vulnerability of the younger generation.
The formal reason for a new surge of public discontent in Spain was the eviction of 87-year-old Maria del Carmen Abascal from an apartment in Madrid, where she had lived for about 70 years. The woman uses a wheelchair, and after buying a house with an investment fund, her rent was increased from €500 to €2,650 per month, despite the fact that her pension is much lower. During the eviction, Abascal was carried out of the house on a stretcher, these shots caused a wide public outcry. Subsequently, she managed to negotiate a return to the apartment on the same terms.
A demonstrator sits in a camp in the Puerta del Sol square, demanding an end to evictions and a solution to the housing crisis.
The government tried to calm the discontent of citizens with legislative initiatives. The ruling leftist coalition, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and Sumar, has submitted two decrees to Congress aimed at protecting tenants, limiting evictions and tightening working conditions for investment funds that buy up housing and raise rental prices. But on October 2, the parliament rejected the initiatives. The Government does not have a stable majority and has to constantly seek support from various political forces. The failure of the housing decrees has shown how limited the executive branch's capabilities are, even on issues that the prime minister considers a priority.
Already on October 3, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid and other cities demanding an urgent solution to the problem of housing affordability. About 70,000 people rallied in the capital, and rallies were held in about 50 cities. Due to the wave of protests, Pedro Sanchez announced early elections on October 5, which will be held on November 29. He explained the decision by the need to gain broader public support for the continuation of reforms: "We need a more impressive majority [in parliament]."
According to the National Institute of Statistics of Spain, in 2025, 44.3% of the country's residents aged 26-34 lived with their parents, and almost half of them — not because they wanted to, but because they could not afford to rent or buy a separate home. Against this background, the eviction of Maria Abascal has become a symbol of the inaccessibility of housing.
However, Nikolai Topornin, director of the Center for European Information, believes that the housing crisis in Spain has become only one of the triggers of widespread discontent, but not its root cause. According to the political scientist, the migration crisis in Ceuta and the incessant increase in energy costs are putting additional pressure on the domestic political situation in the country.
Police liquidate a migrant camp on El Trampolin beach in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta
In this situation, a right turn in the kingdom looks almost inevitable. The expert noted that the opposition Conservative People's Party (PP) is now confidently ahead of the ruling Socialists in the electoral ratings, while the far-right Vox movement closes the top three.
The People's Party believes that the public demand for a change of government was formed after the parliamentary elections in 2023. At that time, the PP won 137 mandates against 121 for the PSOE, but Sanchez was able to remain prime minister thanks to the support of other political forces, Congressional deputy Javier Zelaya Bray reminded Izvestia. In his opinion, since then, the rejection of the current government's course has only intensified.
"Now he's calling early elections to try to manipulate the population with the housing issue, despite the government's inaction over the past eight years,— said Zelaya Brey.
At the same time, the People's Party expects to do without a coalition cabinet with Vox after the elections.
— The People's Party seeks to form a one-party government. This is possible even without an absolute majority, if the PP's result exceeds the total result of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and its allies. In any case, the strategy after the November 29 elections will be determined by the national leadership of the PP," the MP said.
But even a potential victory for the right-wing forces does not guarantee the formation of a stable majority in parliament. The country is highly likely to face a situation of a "suspended" legislature and a protracted coalition crisis, Topornin believes.
How will Macron behave
A wave of social protests swept through neighboring France. The actions of high school students began in late September in the Paris suburb of Cretay and were associated with a shortage of teachers, overcrowded classrooms and problems with the state of schools. The performances quickly spread throughout the country. There were clashes with police in Paris, Lille, Marseille, Lyon and other major cities.
French high school students gathered at Sophie Germain Lyceum as part of nationwide protests
Teachers and other public sector workers joined the protests. On September 29, 206,000 people took part in a nationwide rally, according to the Interior Ministry, and more than 170 rallies were held. The French trade union federation FSU told Izvestia that new days of "mobilization" are likely, but no specific decisions have been made yet.
— Protest actions are formed sequentially, one after the other. Other days of mobilization are likely to follow these days, but nothing has been approved yet," the FSU said.
At the same time, the government of Sebastien Lecorgne came under pressure over the draft budget for 2027. The authorities plan to cut costs by about €54 billion. In particular, it is proposed to limit the growth of pensions and salaries of civil servants, reduce healthcare costs and cut a number of government programs. Such decisions can increase public discontent and lead to new protests.
According to the French Constitution, Macron now has two main levers: he can appoint a new prime minister after the government resigns, as well as dissolve the National Assembly and call early parliamentary elections, Maria Frolova, a researcher at the Institute of World Military Economics and Strategy at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, told Izvestia. The latter is realistic if he considers that the current composition of the Assembly has finally blocked the governance of the country. This is exactly how he acted in 2024, when he dissolved parliament after losing the European elections. At the same time, experts are inclined to believe that Macron is more likely to replace the head of the cabinet in order to reduce public and political pressure and gain time until the presidential elections in 2027.
A protester holds a poster with a cartoon image of French President Emmanuel Macron.
If we draw a historical parallel, the current protests in Spain and France bring Europe back to the logic of 1968: first the youth comes out, and then its agenda quickly becomes general social. In May 1968, in France, student protests at Nanterre and the Sorbonne escalated into the largest strike in the country's recent history — about 10 million workers, or about two thirds of the workforce, stopped work. In Spain, in 1968, the scale was smaller due to the Franco regime, but even there, students and workers protested against the authoritarian system, demanding democratic freedoms, the creation of trade unions and educational reform.
Today's events differ from those in that the triggers have become more mundane and everyday, but, in fact, no less political. In this sense, 1968 is useful as a historical framework: it reminds us that youth protest almost never remains exclusively youth if there is a broader crisis of the social contract behind it.
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