'Nobody heard us' - why Gen Z are leading protests across Europe

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."

‘AN EXPLOSION OF RAGE’

"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 buildings.

“And all of this with the prospect of an underpaid job which we didn't qualify for and the prospect of living in a tiny, overpriced house, probably away from our city, which we didn't want to live in."

Rising prices and the cost of living are a concern for 40% of 16-30-year-olds, according to a European Union survey published in 2025.

Among the 92.7 million people in the EU who faced the risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025, the highest risk was recorded for young adults aged 18-24 years, at 26.3%, while the lowest was recorded for adults aged 65 years or over, at 18.8%.

Younger people are also wary of shouldering the financial burden of an older generation that tends to vote in greater numbers. People over 60 in France make up a quarter of the population but own 60% of France's wealth, according to the OFCE think tank.

‘YOUNG PEOPLE IN EUROPE ARE UNITED’

Bilal Narjissi, a 17-year-old high school student in a suburb north of Paris, has been protesting against “deplorable” conditions and staff shortages at his school. “There used to be rats,” he said. Students were evacuated last year when a roof collapsed on the courtyard, though no one was hurt, he said.

Protests showed “that young people in Europe are united”, he said, adding, "we all agree on one point: that young people are treated like children, far too much, and that they aren't listened to enough.”

Gourdel, too, has been protesting for better conditions in schools in Belgium.

“We tried to do it passively. Nobody heard us. It's only when people started to burn trash or that kind of stuff that the media and cameras started showing us,” she said.

The protests are still spreading, with a demonstration planned in Germany this weekend over cost of living, inequality, war and the state of schools.

“Our Prime Minister spent 130 days not listening to us,” said Xyke Kurti, a 19-year-old architecture student.

“If you ask a student in Albania, 'where do you see your future?' Everyone says 'outside this country'," she said, arguing that at home, even if you have talent, someone with "connections is always going to beat you".

Serbia’s student movement did what demonstrators in other European capitals can only dream of.

Sign up here.

Reporting by Fedja Grulovic, Dragan Kastratovic, Kuba Stezycki, Anna Lubowicka, Alex Fraser, Bart Biesemans, Noemie Olive, Fatos Bytyci, Lafken Zepeda, Francesco Canepa; Video editing by Lauren Roback and Francesca Lynagh; Visual production by Morgan Coates; Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Alex Richardson