Europe’s Gen Z takes to the streets in wave of anger

Maya Gourdel, a 19-year-old student in Brussels, sits at a desk writing slogans against those running her country: “If we burn, you burn with us! ” The slogan, taken from the 2012 film “The Hunger Games” that has been adopted as a symbol by many youth movements globally, reflects the anger, frustration and desire for change driving Gen Z-led protests around Europe. From the suburbs of Paris to the squares of Belgrade, thousands have taken to the streets. The demands are various but often overlapping – frustrations with shabby schooling facilities, perceived lack of economic opportunity, cost of living, corruption, housing and a sense of not being listened to. At times those protests triggered violence – with thousands of shops in France alone being damaged or looted in recent weeks – and police firing stun grenades and water cannons.

This weekend they also brought real change – student-led protests culminated in the toppling in an election of Serbia’s long-time leader Aleksandar Vucic after nearly two years of demonstrations against perceived corruption and creeping authoritarianism. “Waking up, the first thing we felt was certainly a sense of relief and freedom,” said student protester Stasa Piletic. “Personally, I feel a sense of victory. I feel that we finally moved from protests to responsibility. ” A generation struggling to imagine a future Chiara, a 21-year-old student in protest-hit Milan, believes “it’s vital to take part in people’s spontaneous movements born from an explosion of rage that made collective action possible. ” “I think the worst damage this ruling class has done to my generation is stealing even the ability to imagine a future, to dream,” she said. She said Italian students were confronting a reality of schools without enough teachers and crumbling…