From France to Albania, social unrest is setting Europe’s streets ablaze

Ris­ing fu­el costs, dis­con­tent with the state of schools, de­clin­ing pub­lic ser­vices and a hous­ing cri­sis have cre­at­ed per­fect­ly stormy weath­er for an au­tumn of protests in Eu­rope.

Crowds have tak­en to the streets for weeks in ma­jor cities, re­sult­ing in ar­rests, loot­ing, in­juries, and vi­o­lence across France, Italy and Al­ba­nia. In Spain and Por­tu­gal, tent camps have sprung up in protests against un­at­tain­able rents and hous­ing costs.

Young peo­ple “feel dis­ap­point­ed with the (so­cial) mod­el and ex­pe­ri­ence a strong sense of un­cer­tain­ty and a lack of con­trol,” said María Sil­vestre, pro­fes­sor of so­ci­ol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Deusto in Spain. “And when spe­cif­ic sit­u­a­tions come to­geth­er, a spark sud­den­ly ig­nites that is ca­pa­ble of chan­nel­ing that dis­con­tent and dri­ving peo­ple in­to the streets.”