Youth protests in Germany: The anger is justified

A specter is haunting Europe and the world – the specter of an angry youth movement. Young people are taking to the streets not only in France, but also in Italy, Spain, Serbia, Albania and India. They protest against war and rearmament, against miserable conditions in schools, the housing shortage and social inequality. In short: against a policy that increasingly deprives them of any idea of ​​a better future. This weekend this protest movement also reached Germany.

The organizers of the “Gen Z rules” protests count 120,000 participants nationwide. That's fewer than the 180,000 who had announced their participation - but that's significant for the movement's first appearance. There were colorful and loud protests in 34 cities that remained peaceful throughout. But in many places, demonstrators encountered a martial police force that brought out water cannons and tank clearing vehicles, thus continuing the mood of criminalization that had already dominated the discourse in recent weeks.

And no, the fact that after the demos ended - and against the will of the organizers - there were sometimes violent riots, especially in Frankfurt but also in Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin, does not change the legitimacy of the young people's anger. In many cases, the burning garbage cans may even have been a consequence of this violent debate: a defiant attempt to show that one cannot be told how to demonstrate. Among the socialist youth groups that are setting the tone at the protests in many places, there are certainly also feelings of Fomo (the fear of missing out) with regard to France.

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But above all, there is the real feeling that is widespread in this generation of being betrayed and sold. Young people live in a world in which the Merz government, with open contempt for poor people, is destroying this country's education and social systems. They are looking at a future on a burning planet, but they see the fossil fuel economy just carrying on as before. How first liquid gas terminals and now data centers are being built from the ground while an ex-chairwoman of a fossil fuel company heads the Federal Ministry of Economics.

And then politicians constantly tell young people that a coming war is likely and that they can prepare for it. But because not enough volunteers want to join the Bundeswehr, compulsory military service is being prepared quite openly. The young people see what war looks like every day in their live feeds, where images of Israel's genocide in Gaza, which was also committed with German weapons, play on a continuous loop, followed by scenes of brutal police violence at demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine.

It's good that there are now at least signs of an emancipatory countermovement against the feelings of hopelessness that all of this triggers. Because on the other political side, this mood probably contributes significantly to the rampant xenophobia and misogyny - i.e. to value systems in which people at least still believe that they are worth something by devaluing others. But it is doubtful that the middle class understands the democratic impulse of the protests.

It is more likely that everyone will now use racially charged language to look at the pictures of the looted Snipes store on Frankfurt's Zeil. This comes as no surprise to right-wing politicians and the media. But the moral panic in the left-liberal camp must stop. And not because you have to condone looted stores. There are good reasons for the criticism that riot romanticism does more harm than good. But the focus should be on the political failure that produces such protests - not on the behavior of those who apparently no longer know how else to make their voices heard.

Incidentally, this is also what the organizers of the “Gen Z regulates” protests have to hear from, who, in advance obedience, have distanced themselves from everything that could be blamed on them in any way. They must understand that Germany in 2026 will no longer be the same as it was at the time of Fridays for Future. Times have become harsher, and it is foreseeable that only a few parts of the media and politics will be sympathetic to the movement. A look at the rest of the world shows that “Gen Z regulates” can still achieve something. To do this, the movement must build up pressure - and not allow itself to be divided.