Brussels, 30 October, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Belgium student jobs remain available to eligible students aged 25 and over, as recent employment reforms bring renewed attention to age restrictions, working conditions and opportunities for young people. While Belgium… Read more
A series of demonstrations involving young people across Europe has developed into a wider political phenomenon, as students and younger workers challenge governments over living costs, public services and their expectations for the future.
Protests have taken place in France, Belgium, Italy, Albania and several other countries, while a student-led movement in Serbia has achieved a particularly consequential political outcome.
In Serbia, nearly two years of demonstrations culminated in a parliamentary election victory for a student-backed political movement, ending the electoral dominance of President Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party.
The outcome, reported by Reuters on 29 October, has given the movement a prospective parliamentary majority, although final certification of the election results remains outstanding.
Elsewhere, protesters have secured fewer immediate political concessions.
Nevertheless, their campaigns share a recurring concern: that conventional channels of political representation have failed to address problems affecting younger generations.
The grievances vary between countries, but housing affordability, insecure employment, education funding and living costs feature prominently.
A European Parliament youth survey published in February 2025 found that 40 per cent of respondents aged 16 to 30 considered rising prices and the cost of living a priority for the EU.
Almost one-third identified economic conditions and job creation as a principal concern, while education also ranked prominently.
More recent figures illustrate the financial pressures confronting younger Europeans.
According to Eurostat data published in June 2026, 24.2 per cent of EU residents aged 15 to 29 were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025.
That compares with 20.9 per cent for the population as a whole.
These figures do not establish that economic hardship is the cause of every protest. They do, however, provide context for the dissatisfaction expressed by participants.
In Brussels, demonstrations have focused partly on the condition of schools and the availability of educational resources.
Students have criticised deteriorating facilities, shortages of teachers and government decisions affecting education funding.
Nineteen-year-old student Maya Gourdel told Reuters that peaceful attempts to draw attention to these concerns had attracted little response from political leaders.
Her account reflects a wider frustration among demonstrators who believe that public attention has increased only after protests became more disruptive.
Belgium’s education system is organised primarily at community level, meaning decisions concerning funding, staffing and school infrastructure are divided among different authorities.
The demands of protesters consequently involve both national political debates and decisions taken by regional and community institutions.
In France, demonstrations concerning the cost of living and public services have involved students alongside trade unions and other organisations.
Recent protests have also been accompanied by violence, including attacks on commercial premises and confrontations with police.
The involvement of younger demonstrators does not mean that every participant supports violent tactics.
Rather, the events illustrate how movements with economic and political grievances can encompass groups with different objectives and methods.
Italy has experienced similar tensions, particularly in Milan, where demonstrations against rising living costs have followed earlier episodes of unrest.
The Italian government has faced pressure over household expenditure, wages and the affordability of essential services.
These disputes have developed against a background of high energy prices and concerns about the broader economic outlook.
In Albania, student-led protests have challenged Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government over alleged corruption, limited employment opportunities and education standards.
Demonstrations that began in Tirana have spread to other cities.
On 29 October, opposition lawmakers disrupted proceedings in parliament following weeks of protests and confrontations between demonstrators and police.
The government has offered measures intended to address economic concerns while condemning violence associated with the demonstrations.
For many younger Albanians, employment prospects are closely connected to the possibility of emigrating.
The perception that professional opportunities depend on political connections or personal networks has become another source of dissatisfaction.
However, the Albanian movement cannot be treated as identical to protests in EU member states, given the country’s different economic conditions and political institutions.
Serbia provides the most substantial example of youth-led protest translating into electoral change.
The movement emerged after the collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad in November 2024, which killed 16 people and prompted allegations of corruption and negligence.
Students organised prolonged demonstrations demanding accountability and institutional reform.
Their campaign subsequently developed into an electoral challenge to the governing Serbian Progressive Party.
Preliminary results from the October 2026 parliamentary election indicate that the student-backed list has secured a majority of seats.
However, electoral certification and the formation of a new government remain incomplete.
The movement now faces a different challenge: converting protest demands into administrative decisions, legislation and economic policy.
Its success will be judged not only by the election result but also by its ability to govern.
It would be misleading to describe Europe’s demonstrations as a unified political campaign.
Participants have different objectives, national circumstances and ideological positions.
Some demand increased public expenditure, while others concentrate on corruption, political accountability or employment opportunities.
What connects them is a recurring concern about whether established institutions respond adequately to younger citizens.
The political consequences will depend on whether demonstrations produce lasting organisations, influence elections or secure changes in government policy.
Serbia suggests that student mobilisation can translate into substantial political change.
For governments elsewhere in Europe, the question is whether the grievances driving these movements can be addressed through existing political institutions before dissatisfaction generates further unrest.
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Some Belgian spies have questioned EUobserver’s report of a cover-up in favour of an allegedly corrupt Belgian ex-EU commissioner, while international commentary focused on his possible Russia ties.
EUobserver revealed on Friday (23 October) that Hugues Brulin, a director in the Belgian intelligence service (VSSE), had exchanged WhatsApp messages with ex-EU commissioner Didier Reynders, which may have been part of a criminal conspiracy to block VSSE reports into Reynders’ alleged wrongdoing.
But according to “several” VSSE sources who spoke to Belgian daily Le Soir, Brulin, who had been the number three in the VSSE hierarchy, had been in charge of logistics, Human Resources, and IT, but did “not have the power to block enquiries or put his nose into dossiers”.
Brulin did have access to secret dossiers only in case the number one and two directors in the VSSE were absent, and he had to sign off on special operations, called “BIMs” in VSSE jargon, which included measures such as phone wiretaps or home intrusions to place bugs, but this situation occurred just once during his tenure, Le Soir said.
But even if that was all true, Brulin still used to have the power to end the careers of VSSE officers who had looked into Reynders, on grounds of flimsy infractions, as happened in at least three cases, according to EUobserver’s sources.
“This article feels like a liberation. I don’t know if it really is one, but it feels like one … Thanks again in the name of all the normal, honest, taxpaying Belgians,” one ex-VSSE contact told EUobserver, commenting on last Friday’s revelations.
And besides which, there are allegations that Reynders had other VSSE insiders who might have been better placed to act.
This article continues, but the full version is available only to EUobserver.com subscribers. Visit account.euobserver.com/membership
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Officials will call on UK to ‘step up’ financial support at Brussels summit – with post-Brexit issues also on agenda
EU leaders will press Andy Burnham at a summit in Brussels to contribute more to Ukraine’s defence effort in 2027.
EU officials argue that the UK, Canada and Japan should do more to support Ukraine, but entreaties to these G7 countries for extra financial aid at recent international meetings have not been answered, Brussels says.
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© Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
© Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
© Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
“The ‘job’ … has been mostly accomplished,” said a senior official in Belgium’s spy service, Hugues Brulin, in a WhatsApp message to the Belgian then EU commissioner, Didier Reynders.
“Bravo for the work you did,” said Reynders.
It was back in 2022, and, at least on the surface, they were chatting about a staff reshuffle inside Belgium’s intelligence service, La Sûreté de l’Etat/Veiligheid van de Staat (VSSE) — which was already a peculiar thing for Brulin to be doing on WhatsApp with an EU official.
But their messages, seen by EUobserver and published in full below, were now also evidence in a Belgian police investigation into Reynders on money-laundering charges, which painted them in the light of a potentially criminal conspiracy.
They reconfirmed that Belgian authorities were looking into wider allegations of Reynders’ possible collusion with Russia.
Brulin’s real “job” had been to stop the VSSE from probing Reynders and his potential Russia links, according to five former and current Belgian intelligence officers who spoke to EUobserver.
And Brulin also WhatsApp-ed Reynders on how to “counterattack” a Russia whistleblower.
The 68-year-old liberal politician from Liège, in French-speaking southern Belgium, had had a glittering career before his sudden fall from grace in December 2024, when Belgian police raided his properties, and before he was subsequently charged in 2025 with having laundered some €1m via the ING Bank, using lottery tickets and cash deposits.
Reynders had been EU justice commissioner from 2019 until 30 November 2024 (just four days prior to the police raid) and Belgium’s foreign and defence minister from 2011 to 2019.
And Belgium had vetted and cleared him to read “top secret” national, EU, and Nato documents.
Meanwhile, Europe was scandalised to learn, on 10 October, that Germany’s former spy chief had been arrested for selling secrets.
But if a man with Reynders’ CV was also found guilty of corruption and foreign collusion, it would be yet another security fiasco for Western allies.
This article continues, but the full version is available only to EUobserver.com subscribers. Visit account.euobserver.com/membership
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Last week, Elsene became the fifth municipality to vote for an end to fossil-fuel advertising, joining Saint-Gilles, Jette, Schaerbeek and Molenbeek.
Four of those five votes came in the space of just four months, and together, these municipalities are home to roughly 370,000 people: one-third of the Brussels-Capital Region’s population.
All five are making the same demand: that the Brussels region bans fossil-fuel advertising across the entire city, from metro stations to regional roads. More motions are already being tabled, and by the end of the year, a majority of Brussels’ 19 municipalities could be on record calling for a ban.
While local politicians are taking the lead, the outlook a little higher up the chain looks less promising.
Everyday tens of thousands of officials, MEPs, assistants and diplomats brave Brussels morning rush hour on their way to work on the laws that will decide whether Europe meets its climate targets.
Along the way they pass numerous temptations, bus shelters and metro walls selling them petrol cars, weekend flights and gas contracts, normalising the ongoing mass-consumption of these products.
Once they reach their offices, they meet the same industry again, this time in person. The seven biggest oil and gas companies alone have declared lobbying budgets of almost €64m.
Fossil Free Politics research shows EU Commissioners and their cabinets had nearly 900 meetings with fossil fuel lobbyists in the last term. That’s nearly once every working day, showing just how embedded the industry is in the daily rhythm of Brussels life.
Some files come under particularly heavy pressure, with one egregious example being how a secretive alliance of eleven large multinational enterprises worked to tear down the EU’s flagship human rights and climate law last year, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).
The fossil fuel industry is currently mounting an extremely intense lobbying campaign to delay and dilute the EU Methane Emissions Regulation over the past year.
Over 80 percent of all commission meetings with external interest representatives on this regulation involved fossil fuel lobbyists, and the European Parliament is no better. All 17 MEPs who called for the methane regulation to be reopened in an April 2026 letter to the commission had met with fossil fuel lobbyists in the preceding year.
And those are only the declared figures.
Safe to say, the real total is almost certainly higher. According to new research by Reclaim Finance, on two out of every three days, the fossil-fuel lobbyists present at the European Parliament had no meetings scheduled with MEPs. They roam the corridors and cafés in the building, aiming to bump into the MEPs they wish to influence.
The councillors behind these fossil ad ban motions are not pretending that a few billboards will single-handedly solve the climate crisis, but they refuse to continue letting public spaces be misused by the fossil, automotive and aviation industry to freely promote their propaganda; as for the latter, especially since the advertised destinations are often precisely those places that have been the victims of severe climate disruptions..
“The summer of 2026 was a painful awakening to the harsh reality of the consequences of the climate crisis,” said Mathias Gyselen, the Ecolo-Groen councillor who tabled Schaerbeek’s motion in September.
“Heatwaves, heat islands and heat deaths are unfortunately becoming the new normal in the city. Doing nothing is no longer an option.”
They are right. Advertising is how the fossil fuel industry keeps its social licence, presenting itself as part of the solution while expanding the very products driving the crisis.
Not just the five sub-municipalities of the Brussels capital acknowledge this, but over 70+ cities worldwide have taken steps to clear their streets from fossil fuel advertising, among them Amsterdam, Sydney, Stockholm and Edinburgh.
The problems with advertisements, and multi-million euro lobby strategies, are not just that they very much harm the planet, they are also fundamentally undemocratic.
Residents, community groups and civil society organisations cannot match the industry’s firepower. They do not have the budgets, the staff or the open doors that put them across the table from lawmakers week after week.
Europe has dealt with this before.
Tobacco lobbyists no longer get privileged access to health ministers, nor can cigarette brands buy billboards. For many similar reasons the world wants to end fossil fuels, the EU banned tobacco advertising because promoting a deadly product was incompatible with public health.
UN secretary-general António Guterres made the same comparison in 2024 when he urged every country to ban fossil fuel advertising, naming fossil-fuel companies as the “godfathers of climate chaos”
Municipal motions are not binding, so the decision now lies with the Brussels-Capital Region, which controls advertising in the metro, along regional roads and on its own infrastructure. A first obvious step is that it should listen to its municipalities and introduce a city-wide ban.
But the message is also addressed to the institutions on the other side of the Rue de la Loi.
If the streets of Europe’s capital are being cleared of fossil fuel promotion, the corridors of its institutions should be too. That means limiting the industry’s access to decision-makers, closing the revolving door, and rejecting fossil fuel sponsorship and partnerships, just as the EU did with tobacco.
The municipalities of Brussels have shown what local democracy looks like. Now it is up to the region and the EU institutions to show that Europe’s capital is not for sale; not on its billboards, and not in its corridors of power.
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© Angelos Tzortzinis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Nationalist leaders are framing unrest as consequence of failed liberal governance and open borders
Europe’s far-right leaders have jumped on the violence that rocked numerous cities last weekend, framing it as the inevitable consequence of failed liberal governance and open-border policies and insisting only they can restore law and order.
Months away from key elections in Spain, France and Italy, authoritarian nationalists are eager to weaponise the wave of street unrest, originating in peaceful protests over the cost of living and deteriorating public services but hijacked by violent rioters.
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© Photograph: Abdul Saboor/Reuters
© Photograph: Abdul Saboor/Reuters
© Photograph: Abdul Saboor/Reuters
Brussels, 21 October, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin has accused far-left activists of encouraging young protesters to engage in violence during recent Brussels riots and disturbances in Liège. Speaking before the Belgian Chamber of … Read more
Brussels, 2o October, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Thailand has issued an official travel advisory urging its citizens to exercise caution when visiting Belgium following demonstrations and civil unrest across several European countries. The Thailand travel warning, announced on … Read more
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