Protests movements are gaining strength across Europe as more and more people take to the streets. There have been mass demonstrations in Albania, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
While most have been peaceful, those that have turned violent have produced shocking images. Over the weekend, some protests in France devolved into riots and looting, and saw the historic town hall building in Limoges set on fire. This prompted authorities to impose indefinite nighttime curfews in parts of the country including Paris and Lyon.
The various sparks igniting protests across Europe
There is no one single spark for the protests, but they have grown beyond the original complaints fed by simmer grievances and a failure of governments to find solutions to longstanding problems.
These have centered around the state of public services and the cost of living. Additionally, more recent problems of high fuel and energy costs driven by the war between Russia and Ukraine as well as in the Middle East are also driving up the cost of living for families.
For example, in France the protests began last month when high school students demonstrated to demand better classroom conditions, improvements to shoddy installations, and an end to teacher shortages.
In Spain, mass demonstrations began in late-September after an 87-year-old woman named Maricarmen Abascal was evicted by a property company that purchased the house she rented and had lived in for 71 years. A law that could have prevented her eviction due to her age and mobility issues had been let to expire earlier this year.
Although she had a contract that limited her rent by law, the company had wanted to originally raise it by 275% from €500 to €2,650, later dropping the amount to €1,650, still in excess of what she received from her pension.
Dramatic rent increases have been strangling household finances across Spain and the cost of purchasing a house has soared. Likewise, Portugal is experiencing even greater price increases for housing, rising the fastest in Europe.
This has led to a situation where it is extremely difficult for young people to emancipate themselves. Young people in Europe are also concerned about their job prospects and growing inequality. They are calling on their governments to step up.
However, governments find themselves in a position where strained finances are limiting their ability to respond, if they can at all, to the demands of the protestors. Nor are they able to implement measures to stimulate slow growing economies.
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