YOUTH PROTESTS SPREAD FROM DHAKA TO PARIS AND MILAN

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Summary:

• Youth protests ended governments in Bangladesh and Nepal, and India’s education minister resigned in July.
• Serbia votes on 25 October and Spain on 29 November, amid protests over corruption and housing.
• Albania, Portugal, France and Italy recorded large protests in October.

Youth protests took place in several countries between 2024 and October 2026. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace logged new antigovernment demonstrations in more than 70 countries in 2025. You find them in the Global Protest Tracker.

In Bangladesh, students protested in 2024 against a quota system that reserved 30% of public posts for relatives of 1971 independence war veterans. The movement, called the “July Revolution”, ended Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party won the election of 12 February 2026.

In Nepal, a social media ban in September 2025 triggered protests against corruption. Seventy-six people died and Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli resigned. Balendra Shah, a 35-year-old former rapper, became prime minister on 27 March 2026.

In Albania, the “Flamingo Revolution” began in May against resort projects on the southern coast linked to Jared Kushner. Students joined in October over education and corruption. Protesters set fire to the Supreme Court building on 17 October. Prime Minister Edi Rama refused to resign.

Serbia will vote on Sunday 25 October. The student movement began after the Novi Sad station canopy collapse in November 2024, which killed 16 people. Student candidates now run against the party of Aleksandar Vučić.

In India, the Cockroach Janta Party formed in May after Chief Justice Surya Kant called some unemployed young people and online activists “cockroaches and parasites”. Protests over an exam paper leak followed, and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on 25 July. Police detained founder Abhijeet Dipke at Delhi airport on 10 October.

Spain will hold a general election on 29 November. Protests over rents grew after the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, 87, from her Madrid home on 23 September. The owner, an investment firm, asked €1,650 a month, against about €500 before. She died on 7 October. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the vote after Congress rejected two housing decrees.

In Portugal, thousands gathered in Lisbon and Porto on 10 October against housing and living costs. The platform “Living like this is no longer possible” organized the protests, and a housing movement started a tent encampment in Porto the same day.

In France, yellow vests and unions joined high school blockades over school funding. Estimates put turnout on 17 October between 550,000 and 800,000 people.

In Milan, a march against the cost of living on 17 October turned violent. The movement Italia in Piazza called the march on social media, TikTok in particular. On 18 October police detained more than 200 young people, about 80% of them minors, after groups looted shops in the center. Damage from 17 October was estimated at no less than €1 million.