Author's Note:
The rise of left-wing politics is in no way exclusive to a single city, country, or continent. Many places around the world are currently facing similar issues concerning their political futures, making it difficult to discuss problems in one country without drawing connections to others. Capturing the development of current events and analyzing how a similar cause for concern can lead to different reactions amongst different groups of people is exactly why I started this recurring column.
Whilst I want to keep the focus on Berlin and New York, when the divide between a country's government and its young population becomes so extreme that it leads to mass protests which spiral out of control, it gets hard to ignore. The country or city where something like this takes place is not what interests me, but rather the shared perception of a country’s leaders amongst parts of a population (which can lead to mass protests similar to the ones currently taking place in France), and how this perception develops depending on a government’s reaction. That’s why this week, I focus on the student protests happening across France, what has caused them to develop the way they have, and why growing unrest amongst young people is in no way exclusive to one country.
The Origin
During the summer of 2026, the effects of climate change became more apparent than ever before. Rising temperatures and long droughts exposed how unprepared some countries’ infrastructures are for dealing with extreme heat waves.
In France, students were confronted with unbearable temperatures in a school system that is widely known for desperately needing renovation, while also being seriously understaffed. The effects of understaffed schools and neglected educational infrastructure, which particularly affect schools in low- and medium-income communities, include high cancelation rates of teaching hours (nearly 10 percent nationwide) and overfilled classrooms, with classes averaging 29-36 kids.
When issues like this prevail, they can have a severe impact on the quality of education. They will also shape students’ perception of how much their country’s leaders value education – and, by extension, their generation.
During the heat wave, the unstable, understaffed and overfilled school system became unbearable and, in some cases, even caused serious health issues for teachers and students. As students were left to deal with the dire state of their educational system, they decided they could no longer keep quiet.
Students on the Rise
On September 17th, the protests started, with students blocking off the entrances at the Antoine de Saint-Exupery High School in Creteil, a suburb southeast of Paris. The movement quickly gained traction and spread across the country, expanding to include not only deteriorating school conditions but also the issues of cost of living, inflation, and declining living standards. It is important to note that these demonstrations occurred in a peaceful manner, with only a few incidents of notable disorder for weeks.
However, what started as peaceful demonstrations in which students blocked entrances to schools on the outskirts of Paris became a nationwide movement. With this growth came clashes with the police, which by mid-October had turned into riots. Videos of stores being destroyed were displayed online as well as by the news media, which created the narrative of a violent youth touring the historic streets of Paris and Lyon and setting their own cities on fire. While it is true that violence shouldn’t be condoned, the media’s fixation on it has shaped public perception of what these protests are meant to be in a highly one-sided way. The causes for the students’ protests have thereby been pushed into the background.
The response by the French government was similarly out of place. President Emmanuel Macron openly called the protests “illegitimate” and blamed the French left, in particular Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party La France insoumise (LFI), for the way they have developed and turned to violence (in reality, LFI has supported the student protests, but there is no proof they advocated for violence). The Interior Minister announced the nationwide deployment of 70,000 police officers. Some cities, including Paris, have issued city-wide curfews, whilst Marseille and Lyon have banned the protests altogether.
The government’s response, however, has only intensified the gap between the young protesters and their country’s aging leaders. What remains from these “safety measures” is a sense of frustration among young people. After all, the demonstrations in France are only the latest in a series of Gen Z led protests. Dating back to Covid times, there have been numerous demonstrations led by Gen Z, with varying levels of success. Just in recent weeks, there have been mass protests in Italy, Greece, Germany, Belgium, Portugal and Spain, some of which have openly attributed their motivation to demonstrate to the student protests in France.
The Blame Game
The international commentariat tends to treat the violent protests as something alien to France. This is deeply ironic, given that modern France was literally built on the burning barricades of the French Revolution, which violently overthrew an outdated Ancien Régime. Ever since, the French people have repeatedly erupted in – oftentimes violent – protests with the aim of overthrowing their government. If there has ever been a “revolutionary people,” it is the French.
This context makes it even more frustrating to see media and politicians blaming the riots on migrant youth and radical leftists, as these protests are not only quite typical of the French, but realistically could have happened – and, in fact, are happening – in any other country neglecting their youth.
The question we should be asking is not how to quiet down the protests as quickly as possible, but how to deal with the underlying issues of an entire generation believing that their future is not being taken seriously.
One of the main reasons why the younger generation feels neglected is the short-term style of politics. In a representative democracy, politicians and parties rely on short-term success in order to secure a win in the next election. In this context, it is not easy to base a campaign on proposals which will take years before change becomes noticeable.
With regard to the French school system, it could take years from the time a reform combating school understaffing is passed until new teachers actually enter the job market. What this means for politicians is that they cannot boast about “fixing” their country’s educational system by the time of the next election, as a “quick fix” for an issue like this simply does not exist. For a politician, it therefore seems more promising to either declare an issue irrelevant or to squarely blame the victims. Unfortunately, this is what’s happening.
Being Young in a System that Privileges the Old
What further impacts the short-term style of politics is the aging of the population. As life expectancy increases and birth rates decline, systems which rely on new generations to support older ones become unbalanced. This is not only true of pension systems but also of politics. As the number of pensioners keeps increasing, both in absolute and relative terms, and since they are the voting group with the highest and most reliable turnout, politicians tend to focus on issues relevant to them. And when you have a large number of voters who might never see the effects of long-term political decisions, it becomes hard to win an election on promises of long-term change. Pensioners also tend to be more conservative, which influences political choices as well. These factors contribute to an increasing neglect of young voter groups and their issues.
No Future for You
The reason this political system is so relevant to young people is because it doesn’t take their future into account. For instance, an issue like climate change would require a long-term, well-planned solution, but would also immediately impact the quality of life many people in Western countries are privileged to enjoy. This means that older generations tend to care less about climate change, as it is unlikely to affect them as much, but would notice the impact of climate-preserving policies on their everyday life. The main beneficiaries of climate policies would be young generations, as well as children who have yet to be born, and only a small percentage of this group are eligible to vote. It’s important to realize that this style of thinking completely undermines entire generations of kids and teenagers, who fear that their future lives are being neglected so that political parties can maintain their popularity and keep things going the way they are for another few years.
Next to growing frustration within young generations, the effect of this style of political leadership can also be seen in the rise in popularity of “extreme” parties. Radical parties on the right and the left have experienced growing support, as trust in establishment parties sinks – especially among young voters. This is less due to a radicalization of the youth, but rather a call for a complete change in leadership they feel has abandoned them.
Recent concessions by the French government promising to invest an additional four billion euros into the school infrastructure are a major victory for the movement. However, whether or not they indicate a turnaround in government thinking remains to be seen.
This feeling of mistrust and frustration towards a political system which doesn’t seem to take the youth’s future into account has been brewing among Gen Z for a while now. And there’s ample proof, as this is the generation that saw crucial years of social development be taken away from them through COVID-19 regulations, is facing a deepening climate crisis, the potential return of military draft, a crumbling infrastructure, and a general crisis of affordability draining their meager resources.
These problems, however, are not confined to France – countries across the world are facing similar issues, as prices rise, wealth gaps widen, policies prioritize the profit-driven demands of the ultra-rich, and climate change intensifies. This is precisely the reason why we see Gen Z erupting in protest all over the world: An entire generation has been led to believe that their future isn’t a priority. Now, they are voicing their concerns and demanding change, and their radicalism, as much as there is any, is merely a reflection of the fundamental disregard for their needs. Therefore, attributing the frustration of young people to anything but political failure would be a mistake.
