Greek Youth Turn to France for Inspiration as Anger Over Living Costs and Education Grows

Thousands of students, school pupils, teachers and public-sector workers demonstrated across Greece on 21 October, calling for greater investment in public education, better school facilities and more affordable housing. The mobilisation took place in Athens, Thessaloniki and other cities, with protesters drawing explicit parallels with the youth-led demonstrations in France. According to police figures reported by Reuters, around 10,000 people gathered in central Athens and its suburbs, while demonstrations were also held elsewhere in the country.

The protests reflect mounting frustration among young Greeks who face rising living costs, stagnant purchasing power and limited prospects for financial independence. Banners reading “From Greece to France, we are fighting for public and free education” connected domestic demands with a broader European movement against deteriorating public services and the growing cost of everyday life. Students also established overnight encampments in Athens’s Syntagma Square, outside parliament, turning housing affordability and education funding into a visible challenge for the government.

France has provided an example of how grievances over education and living standards can bring different groups into the streets. Greek demonstrators have expressed solidarity with their French counterparts, while insisting that the problems motivating their own mobilisation are deeply rooted in the country’s domestic conditions. The protests therefore represent more than an imported political trend: they give expression to pressures that have accumulated within Greek society over several years.

Housing costs undermine the promise of economic recovery

Affordable accommodation has become one of the most pressing concerns for Greek students. High rents in Athens and Thessaloniki make it increasingly difficult for young people to study away from their family homes, while limited student accommodation and the cost of utilities add to the financial burden. Some students report that their families can no longer afford to cover rent, electricity and other basic expenses alongside their own household costs.

The pressure is particularly significant in a country still dealing with the long-term consequences of its sovereign debt crisis. Between 2009 and 2018, successive austerity programmes involved substantial cuts and economic hardship. Although Greece has since returned to growth and wages have risen, improvements in headline economic indicators have not translated into comparable gains in purchasing power for many households. Reuters reported that the average monthly salary of approximately €1,500 remained around its 2009 level, while housing costs and renewed inflationary pressures continued to erode living standards.

For younger generations, the result is a growing obstacle to independence. Remaining with parents after graduation, postponing major life decisions or abandoning studies because of financial constraints can undermine confidence in the benefits of higher education. When university attendance becomes increasingly difficult to reconcile with the cost of living, the issue extends beyond student welfare to the country's longer-term ability to retain skilled graduates and offer younger citizens a credible path towards economic security.

Public education faces structural pressures

Housing is only one part of the dispute. Protesters have also highlighted deteriorating school infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, shortages of teaching staff and inadequate educational resources. Greece's public education system continues to face the consequences of years of constrained investment, with the quality and accessibility of services becoming central concerns for students, families and educators.

According to figures cited by the French-language newspaper Le Temps, Greece allocated 3.3% of its gross domestic product to education in 2023, compared with an EU average of 4.7%. The secondary-school teachers' federation OLME has also reported a shortage of approximately 15,000 teachers. These figures illustrate the scale of the challenge facing a system expected to provide accessible education while operating with comparatively limited resources.

Teachers and other public-sector employees have joined the demonstrations, broadening the mobilisation beyond university campuses. Work stoppages have disrupted some school and hospital services, while unions have called for better pay, additional staffing and more substantial public investment. Their participation links the immediate demands of students with wider concerns about the capacity of public services to meet the needs of the population.

The government has pointed to planned investment in student accommodation and infrastructure. Education Minister Sofia Zacharaki said projects worth more than €733 million were under way, including new student residences and improvements to facilities. The existence of these projects, however, has not removed concerns over the immediate affordability of education and housing or the condition of schools. For protesters, the central issue is whether public commitments will produce tangible improvements in their daily lives.

Political pressure builds ahead of the next election

The demonstrations place additional pressure on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's conservative government as Greece approaches parliamentary elections expected in mid-2027. The administration has sought to support households and businesses through subsidies and other measures intended to cushion the effects of higher energy costs. Yet continued pressure on rents, wages and public services risks weakening the political benefits of economic recovery.

The government also faces the challenge of responding to the protests without allowing comparisons with France to define the domestic political debate. Mitsotakis has said Greece will not return to the period of intense social unrest associated with the debt crisis. Such assurances, however, do little on their own to address the grievances that have brought students and educators into the streets.

For the opposition, the mobilisation offers an opportunity to challenge the government's record on public services and living standards. But the protests also reveal a broader problem that cannot be resolved solely through electoral competition: economic growth is unlikely to restore public confidence if younger citizens continue to experience education and housing as increasingly inaccessible.

A European challenge beyond Greece

The Greek demonstrations form part of a wider pattern of youth mobilisation across Europe, where the costs of housing, education and basic services have become increasingly difficult to separate from questions of social equality and economic opportunity. France has supplied visible inspiration, but the grievances expressed in Greece are shared by young people facing different national circumstances and similarly constrained prospects.

The scale and duration of the Greek movement will depend on whether the current mobilisation develops into sustained collective action and whether the government can demonstrate measurable progress. Students have indicated that the protests will not necessarily be a one-off event, while teachers' and public-sector unions have their own demands for continued action.