Even in the heat of the 2026 American midterms, days before a crucial Israeli election, violent unrest and protests in Western Europe have become one of the biggest stories in American news media this week.
With surreal scenes of mass demonstration, vandalism, and looting emerging from France and Italy, it’s left many Americans watching from afar to wonder – what’s driving the chaos?
How did the protests evolve into riots?
Before the flames and continental unrest, protesting began in France back in mid-September in the Parisian suburb of Créteil when a group of high school students voiced concerns about teacher vacancies and lack of resources. Just 10 days later, the French government said demonstrations took place at over 1,000 schools – over 25% of the nation's high schools.
By the first week of October, the demonstrations had already become violent, with the police making thousands of arrests and mainstream media reporting there were acts of vandalism, assault, and violence against police.
In mid-October, the school protests converged with demonstrations about dissatisfaction with the overall cost of living. The number of participants swelled into the hundreds of thousands by last weekend, when things came to a head in several major French cities.
The planned protests devolved into chaos in Paris and other major cities like Limoges, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, and Toulouse. Incidents of arson, vandalism, looting, assault, and clashes with police were reported by many major outlets, as videos of the chaos flooded social media.
Once things had calmed down by early this week, the French government said about 1,000 police officers had been injured, and 2,400 people had been arrested.
(Thibaud Moritz/AFP via Getty Images via Foreign Policy)
How has the unrest spread?
At the same time, several coordinated cost-of-living demonstrations took place across France’s neighbors, Italy, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal. These also turned violent, with chaos prevailing particularly in Milan.
The Italian government deployed 500 soldiers to Milan on Tuesday after weekend protests escalated into violence and looting. Police reportedly detained 271 people in Milan, and 32 have been arrested so far, including 23 minors and 13 foreign nationals. According to various authorities, police have sustained 14 injuries in Milan, 56 in Bologna, and about 100 in Turin.
In Brussels, Reuters (Center) reported that hundreds of “mostly young people” protested on Saturday. Some were reportedly “wearing masks and chanting anti-fascist slogans” and clashed with police. Belgian police arrested at least 195 nationwide, and five officers were injured in Brussels.
Though it’s not a direct neighbor of France, there was also unrest in Portugal. In Lisbon and Porto, police reportedly cleared activist encampments early Tuesday and arrested 55 who refused to leave the area voluntarily after warnings. Before that, at least 35 were reportedly injured during weekend demonstrations. According to Reuters, Portuguese protestors “are demanding the centre-right government withdraw a bill making evictions easier and ending rent caps on new leases.” The publication also said Portugal is “grappling with one of Europe's worst housing affordability crises” and noted pushback against overtourism and “so-called digital nomads.”
Spain also saw mid-week unrest, with a protest of about 5,000 that left a dozen injured.
In June 2025, protestors in Italy, Spain, and Portugal made a splash in the mainstream news cycle when they sprayed tourists with water guns as a protest against the current housing and cost-of-living problems in the region. You can read AllSides’ June 2025 coverage on the protests here.
Elsewhere in Europe
Two Balkan countries have also seen unrest this week. In Greece, about 10,000 protesters appear to have been inspired by what happened in Western Europe and took to the streets of Athens, griping primarily over education and affordability.
Albania has also seen considerable unrest that has turned violent, though it began long before the French protests – and AllSides wrote about it then. Notably, a top Associated Press (Lean Left) feature from earlier this week grouped Albania into a headline that said “social unrest is setting Europe's streets ablaze.”
Albania has seen protests since the end of May, kickstarted by Jared Kushner's plan to put a luxury resort on an island near Vlorë that could damage or disrupt protected coastal areas and nature reserves. Some have argued, however, that the protests have been about deeper political tensions and issues within the country, which has had the same leader since 2013.
The unrest has been dubbed the “Flamingo Revolution,” though tensions have escalated into violent clashes with police since last Tuesday. BBC News (Center) reported that “many” of the protesters were students “trying to oust embattled Prime Minister Edi Rama” and that 295 people, including 186 police officers, have been injured.
(Map and graphic via EU Perspectives)
What's driving the unrest and how has mainstream media framed it?
Media outlets and commentators from the left and right split pretty starkly in how they framed what underlies the unrest.
As mentioned above, the demonstrations began with teenagers advocating for better schooling and had already turned violent when they converged with organized cost-of-living demonstrations. Even after some of the protesting devolved into anarchy, mainstream outlets from the left and center have emphasized that the chaos arose from dissatisfaction with affordability and politics, sometimes blaming it on France’s history of protest.
CNN (Lean Left) headlined an analysis, “The rioting across France is a symptom of a much larger public and political crisis” and examined how deeply unpopular President Emanuel Macron currently is.
Thomas Chatterton Williams of The Atlantic (Left) blamed the riots on nihilistic “angry young men” who will “never” see France as a good enough place to live. He wrote, “These past weeks of pandemonium have driven home for me that no society, not even a society as generous and in many ways enlightened as France’s, can make life sweet enough for angry young men. Nihilists of the kind we’ve seen flood the streets of France from coast to coast will never uphold their end of the social contract, no matter how beautifully it is drafted…The rioters in France are not political actors expressing the “language of the unheard,” but nihilists rebelling against the very idea of a collective national life. Whether their stated justification is racism, Islamophobia, neoliberalism, or something else, they are agents of chaos and spite, lashing out against their productive, decent neighbors, perhaps precisely because those neighbors are productive and decent.”
On the right, ZeroHedge (Lean Right) wrote in its coverage, “Corporate media continues to run the narrative that 'demonstrators' are merely kids demanding greater education funding, higher teacher salaries, and protection of pensions and public services from budget cuts. This is the far left, which wants nothing more than to burn down the West.”
There was also a notable Fox News (Right) investigation that identified 54 organizations “and their wider network of supporters and international amplifiers” involved in the French protests. Reporter Asra Q. Nomani said the groups included “communist parties, revolutionary socialist groups, labor unions, environmental activists, Muslim student advocates, Palestinian-solidarity organizations and international media outlets” and that only 16 were “student or youth organizations.” Nomani linked two of the organizations to left-wing China-based American activist Neville Roy Singham. Earlier this year, AllSides identified Nomani as the lead reporter on the conservative targeting of Singham.
What have American politicians said?
Previously, on October 6, when things started getting out of hand in France, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “What's happening in France is nothing less than out of control mass migration. This isn't about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country!”
Last weekend, a 143-year-old town hall in Limoges was burned and collapsed. Vance shared the footage and wrote, “Western liberals imported the third world into France and other countries in the name of diversity and compassion. They ignored fundamental questions of assimilation and compatibility. They were told it would lead to this, and they didn't listen… And I hope Americans are paying attention. This is the future congressional Democrats seek for your country.”
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who was born to Punjabi parents in the US, challenged Vance’s opinion and wrote, “[Vance] says this is what happens when a nation lets in too many immigrants from the global south. He is not just morally wrong, but misreading the moment. The is [sic] what happens when nations let wealth and power accumulate in the hands of a few. This is what happens when young people lose hope in their future. In America, let us listen to our young. We need an economic and political transformation.”
Townhall (Right) criticized Khanna’s take and published an opinion titled, “France Is Rioting Against Broken Progressive Promises. Ro Khanna's Answer Is to Make More.”
Both Vance and Khanna’s statements demonstrate how partisan politicians seek to make everything a political stand aimed at rallying their base with the 2026 midterm elections less than two weeks away.
(via Fox News)
What’s the European political context?
On such international stories, especially the ones that make big headlines in the US, it’s always helpful to look abroad for opinions as well, as not everything is about the American left-to-right axis.
French commentator Arnaud Bertrand (Not rated) published an opinion on X that sat above said axis. He said, “Pretty funny to see everyone blame this (rightly condemned, to be clear) on whatever their political bogeyman is: I've just seen people say that this is because of, take your pick, 'communism,' 'Islamism,' 'third worldism,' 'Russia,' and 'China.' As if France needed any outside help to riot…”
He went on to argue that France is in a dire fiscal, societal, and political crisis, mentioning that debt is currently 119% of its GDP in a not-ideal lending climate, “public services” are “crumbling,” President Macron’s “insane 82% disapproval rate,” and that poverty is at a record high of 15.4%.
Just as American commentators have sought to tie their own partisan aims to the unrest, French and European politicians have done the same.
Most notably, in France, a presidential election is right around the corner, with the first round in mid-April. Because Macron has both reached his term limit and is deeply unpopular, vying politicians have taken advantage of the spectacle to position themselves to take power.
Marine Le Pen and her National Rally party, which many mainstream media outlets have described as “far-right,” have – like the Trump administration – blamed the unrest on “uncontrolled immigration” and the “ultra-left,” casting themselves as those who would enforce law and order.
Le Pen’s presidential ambitions are particularly heightened as last year she was sentenced to four years in prison and barred from public office for five years after a French court found her guilty of embezzlement. An appellate court later shortened her ineligibility period, however, leaving her candidacy intact.
RELATED: French Leader Marine Le Pen Convicted for Embezzlement, Banned From Public Office | AllSides
Meanwhile, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who some outlets have described as “far left,” has actively leaned into the movement, rejecting claims that the left-wing is behind it and instead shifting blame towards the government for failing to address systemic grievances.
Polls last week showed both candidates already gaining momentum before the riots escalated. French state outlet France24 framed Le Pen as having gained significant momentum since the weekend’s riots, though according to Politico (Lean Left), the first “post-riot” poll has shown “little change.”
What’s next for the demonstrations?
While the riots have subsided, there are still some protests planned. A Yellow Vest march (a spinoff of a French movement regarding rising energy prices in the late 2010s) and more student union rallies are planned in Paris for this Saturday. Heavy restrictions have been placed on where the protests must stay contained. Some parts of the city center are barred to protesters, while others are under curfews to prevent violence. On Friday, France said it will mobilize 70,000 security personnel to keep the city safe.
Anti-government demonstrations are also planned for Milan on Saturday, and the government has maintained a heightened security presence.
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