Gen Z-led protests spread across Europe as Serbia’s Vucic loses an election

Brussels, Belgium. Protests led by Generation Z are spreading across Europe, driven by anger over economic prospects, public services and political accountability. In Serbia, student-led demonstrations have contributed to the election defeat of long-time leader Aleksandar Vucic.

A slogan from a film

Maya Gourdel, a 19-year-old student in Brussels, was seen writing protest slogans aimed at the people governing her country. One of them warns the leaders that they will go down too if young people are brought down. It comes from the 2012 film “The Hunger Games”, which youth movements around the world have adopted as a symbol. The phrase reflects the frustration and the wish for change behind the demonstrations.

Related: Student-backed candidates win Serbian parliamentary election as Vucic concedes

RelatedStudent-backed candidates win Serbian parliamentary election as Vucic concedes

Wide range of grievances

Thousands of people have demonstrated, from the suburbs of Paris to the squares of Belgrade. Their demands differ but often overlap. They include poor conditions in schools, a perceived absence of economic opportunity, the cost of living, corruption, housing, and a feeling that nobody is listening.

Some protests turned violent. In France alone, thousands of shops have been damaged or looted in recent weeks, while police have used stun grenades and water cannons.

Change in Serbia

Nearly two years of demonstrations against perceived corruption and creeping authoritarianism ended this weekend with Vucic’s removal at the ballot box. Student protester Stasa Piletic said the first feeling on waking was relief and freedom. She added: “I feel that we finally moved from protests to responsibility.”

Voices from Italy

Chiara, a 21-year-old student in Milan, a city hit by protests, said she considers it vital to join spontaneous movements that grew out of an outburst of rage and made collective action possible. She argued that the gravest harm done to her generation by the ruling class has been “stealing even the ability to imagine a future, to dream”.

She said Italian students face schools that lack enough teachers and have crumbling buildings. In her account, they also face the prospect of a poorly paid job outside their qualifications and a small, expensive home, probably far from the city where they would prefer to live.

A global pattern

Gen Z, the generation born roughly between 1997 and 2012, has been making itself heard worldwide, with unrest in Bangladesh in 2024, Nepal in 2025 and India this year. Europe has now become a focal point.