Europe protests: A continent in crisis?

“They've surrendered their country to vandals,” claimed Donald Trump this week, as videos of protests and looting across France spread across social media and TV news bulletins.

The US president has framed the unrest in France – and similar protests across Europe, as a migration problem. “They’re losing Europe”, he said, at a campaign rally in Kansas this week. But what is actually getting people out on the streets in their thousands?

The BBC’s Europe editor, Katya Adler, joins us to explain how years of discontent and disenfranchisement among young people have coalesced in this period of fiery protest.

(Photo: A protester kicks a tear gas canister during clashes with police at a demonstration against rising living costs and cuts to public services in Paris, France, 17 October 2026. Credit: EPA/Shutterstock)

Producer: Hannah Moore, Aron Keller, Lucy Pawle and Jo Casserly

Sound engineer: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins