Europe’s Street Protests Are Not Just About France
On the weekend of Oct. 24, it was not only France that took to the streets. Demonstrations also broke out in Brussels, Milan, Rome, Lisbon and Madrid on the same weekend. The demands differed by country, but the reasons people marched looked alike.
First, this is not a single movement. Axios described the protests as a series of movements arising from shared concerns about living costs, educational standards and economic and political dissatisfaction, not one coordinated campaign. The Economist noted that most of the protests are about the cost of living and poor public services, and that narratives about immigration or religion do not fit. Most of the demonstrators are citizens of their own countries.
Belgium’s protests are student-led. Students in Brussels and Liège demonstrated against rising education costs, including university registration fees, and police used tear gas and water cannon. On Saturday, Oct. 24, a rally was also held at Albertine Square in Brussels against the federal government’s economic policies, living costs and welfare cuts. Prime Minister Bart De Wever has defended spending cuts as necessary to avoid a spiral of debt and interest costs. Belgium’s deficit is about 5% of gross domestic product, and its debt is 110.2%.
Italy began with “No Meloni Day” on Oct. 16, when students demonstrated in Milan, Turin, Bologna and Rome, and clashes followed in Milan, Turin and Bologna on Oct. 17. Demands that started with school conditions widened to low wages, prices and diesel costs, and road hauliers and farmers joined in. On Oct. 24, bottles and fireworks flew in Rome, rocks and smoke bombs were thrown in Turin, and Florence saw clashes as well. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni deployed 500 soldiers to Milan with drone surveillance and railway station checks, and on Oct. 20 approved tougher anti-riot measures. Italy’s debt is 139.9%, the second-highest after Greece, but its deficit is improving at around 3%.
Portugal’s issue is housing. On Oct. 17, tens of thousands marched in Lisbon, led by the CGTP union, over living costs, low wages and the housing crisis, and set up a tent camp in Rossio Square. Portuguese house prices have more than doubled since 2017.
Spain’s housing crisis is the longest-running. The death in hospital of an 87-year-old woman evicted from her Madrid home after she could not pay a rent increase became a rallying point for nationwide protests. After parliament rejected his housing proposals, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap general election for Nov. 29, according to reports. On Oct. 24, more than 25,000 people in Madrid demanded pension reform, while in Barcelona masked demonstrators smashed a glass kiosk and set fires.
Greece, Germany and Austria are still at an early stage. In Athens, students pitched tents outside the finance ministry and parliament over student housing costs, while in Germany and Austria only early signs of organization have been reported.
Four shared structures bind these countries. The first is debt. Eurozone government debt rose to 88.8% of gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2026. Greece stands at 140.8%, Italy at 139.9%, France at 119.1%, Belgium at 110.2% and Spain at 101.4%, with 11 countries above the 60% threshold and six above 100%. The number of countries with deficits above the European Union’s 3% limit is expected to rise from seven in 2025 to eight in 2026, mainly because of increased defense spending.
The second is prices and housing. Belgium’s inflation is 4.5%, Italy’s September inflation was 4.2%, the sharpest monthly rise in the European Union, and France’s September inflation was 3.1% with energy up 21.3%. In every country, food, housing and energy are the problem.
The third is the transmission of interest rates. When French government bond yields rise, other countries’ borrowing costs follow. The gap between French and German 10-year yields has widened to 150 to 180 basis points, its widest since the 2011-2012 euro crisis, and now sits above Italy’s and Greece’s. In the past, Italy and Spain ran the larger deficits, but now their deficits are around 2 to 3% while France’s is near 5.5%, which is why the ranking has flipped. Italian government bond yields rose 14 basis points this week to 4.616%, and Belgium’s premium over Germany reached a 14-year high of 109 basis points. This reaches households: 12-month Euribor, the benchmark for variable-rate mortgages in Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland, stood at 3.323%, and a 200,000-euro loan now costs about 99 euros more per month than a year ago. A budget crisis in Paris connects to a monthly payment in Valencia or Bologna.
The fourth is the election cycle. Spain’s snap election, France’s presidential election and Italy’s general election are lined up in succession. The moment when austerity is needed collides head-on with the moment when votes are needed, which is why no government can push austerity while easily absorbing street backlash.
The market fallout has already moved beyond France. The euro fell to a 16-month low against the pound and a three-month low against the Swiss franc, France’s CAC index fell 1.36% and Italy’s MIB fell 1.50%. Carrefour, Europe’s largest food retailer, cut its operating profit margin target because of the riots.
Still, many analysts say a repeat of the 2011 crisis is unlikely. France’s deficit is a known number, not a hidden one, its trade deficit is not as severe as Greece’s was, and the European Central Bank has more tools than it did then. One economist put the chance of a 2011-style crisis at 10 to 20%. The problem is that France is not Greece. As the eurozone’s second-largest economy, with debt of 3.6 trillion euros and 340 billion euros of new issuance planned for 2027, it cannot be rescued the way Greece was. So the market’s question has changed from whether the French crisis becomes a European crisis to how long, and how expensively, French risk stays elevated.
In short, it is less that the French protests spread than that European countries, each working through the same equation of debt, prices, interest rates and elections, took to the streets on the same weekend. France is where that equation exploded most dramatically, and markets have begun pricing it as a risk premium for Europe as a whole.
