Student-led demonstrations have extended across multiple European cities, where footage captured confrontations between authorities and protesters, including the deployment of water-dispersal equipment against gathered crowds.
Demonstrations over what protesters described as insufficient funding for education drew students into the streets of France from late September onward. Footage capturing encounters between young people and riot officers — including arrests — circulated widely from French cities, while comparable scenes unfolded across Italy, Albania, and Belgium.
Large numbers of student demonstrators took to the streets across multiple Italian cities, voicing opposition to the government, where authorities deployed water cannons to disperse the crowds. Photographs captured groups of young people hurling stones, incendiary bottles, and fireworks toward officers during demonstrations over school conditions, the cost of living, and opposition to war. Footage captured individuals discharging fire extinguishers toward officers in protective gear, while separate groups set alight materials along the roadway.
Protesters numbering in the dozens converged on the entrance to Rome's Education Ministry, where smoke bombs and firecrackers were discharged against the building's exterior walls. Protesters also directed chants at education minister Giuseppe Valditara, calling for his removal from office. Officers in Rome announced they were reviewing video recordings to identify individuals connected to acts of violence, noting that the conduct of a limited number of participants had not undermined the overall management of public order.
In Turin, water cannons were deployed and tear gas was released into Piazza Castello after a number of young demonstrators threw rocks at police. Thousands more converged on the Regional School Office, where eggs were thrown at officers stationed outside by a portion of those gathered.
Parallel gatherings under the banner of "No Meloni Day" unfolded across the country, with crowds in multiple cities directing their opposition toward Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Disturbances broke out across four Italian cities — Genoa, Venice, Padua, and Bari.
Protesters described school buildings left in poor condition, cancelled assemblies, and a shortage of spaces where students can mix — circumstances they linked to a government reallocation of public money away from education and healthcare and toward defence.
Separately, video from Tirana captured a fourth day of clashes between anti-riot officers and demonstrators in the Albanian capital. Students joined an ongoing protest movement that had been building over several months in opposition to a coastal development project — linked to Jared Kushner, who is married to the daughter of former U.S. President Donald Trump — earmarked for a stretch of shoreline that holds protected environmental status.
Footage captured demonstrators calling for changes to education policy throwing stones at officers stationed outside the Education Ministry, with law enforcement deploying tear gas and water cannon in response. What began as a peaceful gathering grew tense once demonstrators reached police cordons, at which point clashes broke out.
That Wednesday, flames took hold inside the Education Ministry while several other government buildings came under attack. A number of protesters were taken into custody by officers. People in face coverings launched fireworks at government buildings as rubbish bins in the vicinity caught fire, sending thick columns of smoke into the air.
Figures released by national police chief Skender Hita put the number of officers who sustained injuries at 71, with the announcement coming on a Thursday. From inside a hollowed-out university building, Prime Minister Edi Rama recorded and shared a video stating that his country would not yield to external pressure.
Mirela Kumbaro, the country's education minister, posted a video appeal for cooperation as further confrontations spread across at least three other Albanian cities, identifying herself both by her ministerial role and as a parent. Separately, a government official called on parents to keep their children away from the affected areas.
Meanwhile, student-led protests against tuition increases and budget reductions in Belgium the week before had also turned confrontational, with authorities using tear gas to disperse the gathered crowds. Trade unions opposing the government's spending cuts joined the gathering alongside the other protesters. Fourteen people were taken into custody after confrontations in Brussels intensified.
