French school students have taken to the streets over teacher shortages and crumbling learning conditions. Their demands reach well beyond better classrooms: they are defending equal opportunity and the ability of public institutions to lay the foundations for a decent life. Their protests show how much pressure Europe's welfare state is now under.
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The reasons behind protests across the continent vary, but much of the anger reflects a loss of economic and social security. A job no longer guarantees stability for everyone, and as public services strain, families are left carrying burdens they once shared with the state.
This insecurity is tied to the rising influence of several strands of right-wing economic thinking. They may disagree on trade, migration and the role of government, but the most influential among them converge on the same priorities: lighter burdens on capital, tighter limits on social spending and greater reliance on markets to meet basic needs.
Nor is this agenda confined to the right. Centrist governments have also put fiscal discipline and competitiveness ahead of protecting public services, shrinking the range of social policy options on the table.
The fallout from the Russia–Ukraine war, together with European and American support for Kyiv, has accelerated a shift towards defence and rearmament, most visibly in France and Germany. Rising military budgets have come alongside pressure to cut social spending and overhaul parts of the social safety net.
Defence spending has its security rationale. But expanding it while squeezing public services raises two questions: is the burden being shared fairly, and are citizens' needs still protected under these new priorities?
Then came the US–Israeli war on Iran, which began in late February, adding a further source of economic strain. It has disrupted supply chains and energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz, driven up shipping costs and created fuel supply bottlenecks that persist despite a partial recovery in crude oil flows.
Those costs ripple through transport, heating and production, and from there, to varying degrees, into the prices of goods and services. Combined with weaker social protection, they leave families caught in a double squeeze: essentials cost more, and public institutions are less able to cushion the blow.
In education, stretched resources may push better-off families towards private tutoring and private schools, while children from lower-income homes lose opportunities that are hard to win back. Family wealth then counts for more in shaping career prospects, and education loses some of its power as a ladder of social mobility.
In healthcare, long waiting lists and difficulty getting treatment may force people to put off care or pay out of pocket. The most vulnerable families face a greater risk of worsening illness and lost income, so today's budget savings become tomorrow's social and economic costs.
Over time, this path can erode skills, productivity and domestic demand. The economy of the future depends on good schools, accessible healthcare and stable incomes. Weakening those foundations limits countries' ability to renew themselves and to cope with ageing populations and technological change.
The political price is falling trust, as citizens feel that sacrifices keep piling up while opportunities shrink. The far right may seize on that anger and turn it against migrants and vulnerable groups, obscuring the role of economic policy choices and deepening social divisions.
Europe needs to restore the balance between military security and social security. That means protecting education and healthcare, reviewing tax breaks and sharing the costs of crises more fairly. Preserving the welfare state is no luxury: it underpins these societies' productive capacity and cohesion, and citizens' confidence that the future still has a place for them.
