Europe Is Choking on the Cost of Living: Over 2,000 Arrested in France, Fires in Milan, Tents in Lisbon

More than 2,000 arrested, more than 600 injured police officers, gendarmes and firefighters, 1,500 businesses hit and damage measured in hundreds of millions of euros. That is the toll of the protests against the cost of living across France, announced on Sunday by French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez - with the caveat that the figures are provisional, because the investigations are still ongoing.

One protester died on Paris's Boulevard de Magenta, and police gave cardiac arrest as the cause. According to French media, a 17-year-old boy in Saint-Étienne lost a hand after being hit by a police projectile. In Limoges a fire badly damaged the historic town hall building, and shops were looted in Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux. Even the numbers for Paris don't match: police reported 855 detained, the prosecutor's office 720, of whom 517 were held in custody.

From Madrid to Milan

France is not alone. The wave that hit Spain and France in recent weeks has now spilled over into Italy and Portugal. Saturday's march in central Milan started peacefully and ended with stones and cobblestones thrown at police and with burning barricades made of bar chairs and tables. Police responded with water cannon and tear gas. At least two police officers were injured, and around fifty protesters were detained - many of them minors.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said protest is a right, but that this does not apply to "setting our cities on fire", and called the rioters "hooligans" who "hold entire cities hostage." Milan's centre-left mayor, Giuseppe Sala, said the reasons for the protest are "understandable", but that violence against police and damage to the city "cannot be justified." Right and left agree on the violence. Will they also agree on what drove people onto the streets?

Tents instead of homes

In Lisbon, after a march by thousands of citizens from all over Portugal, hundreds of people stayed overnight on Rossio square, in the tourist heart of the city - just like the tent camp that sprang up in Madrid three weeks ago. "We are here to show that we are suffocating," said 46-year-old social worker Elena Costa. Property prices in Portugal rose by 124 percent between 2015 and 2024 - roughly twice as fast as the EU average.

In Spain the spark was one woman. Eighty-seven-year-old María del Carmen Abascal was evicted after she could not pay her rent, which the investment firm that bought her flat had raised by 230 percent. She has since died. Her case brought people onto the streets, and when the right and the far right in parliament rejected the socialist government's emergency housing measures, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap election for the end of November.

The neighbourhood is burning too

Violent protests also broke out this week in Albania. Students are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, unhappy with conditions at universities and with high tuition fees. On Saturday stones, Molotov cocktails and fireworks flew at the police, and for the first time since the protests began the police used rubber bullets. Court, bank and post office buildings were set on fire or badly damaged. The unrest follows months of anti-government protests, originally sparked by the controversial construction of a luxury resort linked to the family of US President Donald Trump.

Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said the government understands why citizens are angry, but warned opponents not to "import" an atmosphere of instability. The old reflex of every government: the problem always comes from outside. Except rent is not imported - it is paid every month, in Lisbon just as in Madrid.

Madrid, Paris, Milan, Lisbon, Tirana - the thread connecting them is the same. How long will the rest of the Balkans keep watching from the sidelines?