By Thomas Fazi, UnHerd. (Image: Unsplash)
All over Europe, the young are in revolt. The student protests in France have drawn most of the attention, not least because of the violence into which they descended, with rioting, looting and the torching of public buildings. But in recent weeks young people have also taken to the streets in a string of other countries, in some cases violently — in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Germany, Austria and elsewhere. Meanwhile, in Serbia, a student movement that spent two years in the streets has just won a general election, ending Aleksandar Vučić’s long reign.
The triggers may differ — schools in France and Belgium, housing in Spain and Portugal, the cost of living in Italy, corruption and a mixture of the above in Serbia — but the root is the same. These are the protests of a generation that believes it has been robbed of its future. It’s a conclusion that’s hard to argue with. The social contract its parents knew — work hard and you will, at the very least, secure a home, be able to support a family and be better off than those that came before you — has collapsed. For many young Europeans without inherited wealth, adulthood means drifting from one precarious job to the next, earning barely enough to cover the cost of rent and groceries, let alone start a family. That is, if they find work at all. Meanwhile, they have watched the institutions that were supposed to give them a start in life and cushion its blows — schools, universities, health and youth services — wither under austerity and privatisation.