Housing, Schools and Living Costs: Protests Spread Across Europe
Demonstrations over housing costs, public services and the cost of living have spread across several European countries in recent weeks. Protest scenes similar to those in France and Spain have also been reported in Belgium, Italy and Portugal, and clashes have convulsed the Albanian capital, Tirana, according to The Guardian.
In France, the anger has been voiced in part by students. Piles of wheelie bins were stacked against school entrances to signal frustration over crumbling classrooms and teacher shortages, and in several cities students set fires to bins and put up blockades, Al Jazeera reported on October 1. About half a million people took part in a Saturday protest in October against rising living costs and worsening public services.
Some protests turned violent. More than 1,800 people were arrested in France on Saturday, October 17, after protesters supporting high school students clashed with police and buildings were set ablaze. French President Emmanuel Macron said the "unbridled violence" had been carried out by French people. French officials dismissed any link between the violence and immigration.
Earlier in October, France suspended police use of stun grenades against student protests. Reuters reported that the move followed a clash in which a 15-year-old boy's hand was blown off by riot police, a case that fuelled accusations of police brutality.
Célia Belin, head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a research body, has said France's government is constrained by a high deficit and debt-to-GDP ratio, the size of its debt relative to its economic output, and by a deadlocked parliament.
In Spain, the protests began with a tent camp in the heart of Madrid over soaring housing costs. Reuters reported on September 30 that protesters had camped out across the country to demand passage of housing measures. Parliament then rejected a housing decree, and Al Jazeera reported on October 3 that tens of thousands of people rallied across Spain after the failed reforms. Reuters said the anger was also fed by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her Madrid apartment.
In Portugal, thousands of housing protesters returned to central squares in Lisbon and Porto on Tuesday, October 20, and vowed to continue demonstrating. Police had cleared housing protest camps and arrested 55 people, according to Reuters.
Albania has seen some of the sharpest confrontations. Tens of thousands of students poured into the streets of Tirana on Wednesday, October 14, setting alight a government building and two banks and throwing stones, Reuters reported. Reuters video later showed police firing a shotgun toward crowds outside the education ministry, and police also fired rubber bullets at student-led protesters. Prime Minister Edi Rama has vowed not to resign. He has said the mass protests pose a threat to Albania's EU membership, not to the government, Reuters reported on October 18. Protesters were still demanding his resignation as the demonstrations reached their sixth day on October 19.
