DOMINANT ANGLE
Stockholm is deciphering a movement that originated in high schools, which is spreading across Europe and whose Saturday saw a descent into urban chaos, with slogans being repeated as far as Italian schools.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
High school students are occupying schools in Turin, Rome, Naples, and Genoa under the slogan "Vi gör som i Frankrike" (Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet).
- 02
A 15-year-old boy had his left hand torn off by a police grenade in Lens; Minister Édouard Geffrey promised 3,000 additional teachers.
- 03
According to the Interior Ministry cited by the BBC, 272 people were arrested on Saturday; student associations count 800,000 protesters.
ANALYSIS
Stockholm, October 17, 2026. For the Swedish press, France is the starting point of a protest that goes beyond its borders. Svenska Dagbladet and Aftonbladet headline with the slogan "Vi gör som i Frankrike" ("we do as in France"), heard in the high schools of Turin, Rome, Naples, and Genoa, where students are occupying the schools and chanting "money for schools, not for war". Students from Turin, quoted by Corriere della sera, believe that the French prove that collective struggle can force a "deaf" political class to listen to their demands.
The two dailies recall the school origin of the movement. In France, the protests have been going on for weeks, and the perceived police brutality only serves to galvanize the young people. A 15-year-old boy in Lens had his left hand torn off by a police grenade in front of his high school the previous week. Education Minister Édouard Geffrey promised 3,000 additional teachers for the most fragile schools, a response that the high school movement considers insufficient. Svenska Dagbladet, citing Le Monde, notes that the "yellow vests" of 2018 are being resurrected under the names "youth vests" and "young and yellow", and that the two movements are merging their demands against "the high cost of living".
On Saturday, the tone changed. Expressen talks about "chaos" in several major cities, with students, yellow vests, railway workers, and farmers clashing with the police in Paris, Marseille, and Lyon. In Marseille, protesters entered the city hall; its mayor, Benoît Payan, calls them "vandals" and "thugs" and says he has called Emmanuel Macron and Laurent Nuñez for reinforcements. In Lyon, the tourist office was set on fire, with more than 20,000 protesters according to the authorities. Aftonbladet adds the looting of luxury stores (Hermès in Marseille, Louis Vuitton and Apple in Bordeaux) and the takeover of the city halls of Marseille and Lille.
The figures remain attributed. Aftonbladet reports 800,000 participants, according to student associations. The Ministry of the Interior reported 272 arrests during the day, including 191 in Paris, according to Le Parisien, to the BBC. Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire condemns the damage while emphasizing that the majority of protesters are peaceful, and estimates that they harm the demands of the high school students. Jean-Luc Mélenchon opposes the images of violence with tens of thousands of people marching calmly. Svenska Dagbladet finally notes that Belgium is also experiencing widespread protests, and that a teachers' strike is open in Spain for an indefinite period.
