‘Not apathy but disconnection’: We asked Europe’s youngest MEPs what they thought of the continent-wide Gen Z protests

From Porto to Athens, Europe was taken by surprise by the mass youth protests for better education, an affordable cost of living, and political accountability. EUobserver spoke to 12 of the youngest MEPs in the European Parliament to understand the issues at the heart of Gen Z unrest. One topic has been largely misunderstood is political engagement. “It is not the apathy some attribute to Gen Z, but a disconnection from the political establishment, because it is not delivering for them,” said Lena Schilling, a 25 year-old Austrian MEP for the Greens. For instance, an EU study from October found that 55 percent of young Europeans had participated in at least one social initiative. The issue is that “fewer political candidates take an interest in young people,” 34-year old German Socialist & Democrat (S&D) MEP Delara Burkhardt told EUobserver. The average age of MEPs is 50, with the largest demographic in the parliament being men in their forties. Older people also make up an increasing proportion of those voting in Europe. It’s a “huge structural shift, [meaning] young people don’t feel listened to or represented,” said French S&D MEP Chloé Ridel, aged 34. The very few elected to speak on behalf of young people have “to elbow our way through our own committee.” Europe has seen wave after wave of youth-led protests in the last two months, starting with French high-school students demanding better education, bringing up to 600,000 people to the streets and continuous protests since 17 September. The French were followed by the Spanish housing movement, culminating in the first general strike in 14 years, counting some four million workers and close to 200,000 protesters across the country. The movement spread from Madrid to squares in Rome, Lisbon and beyond, as students and neighbours hoisted tents in central areas to protest the cost of living. The discrepancy between those elected and those electing, has resulted in a vast chasm in priorities - and language. The weekly protests erupting from every corner of the continent received responses of “warning of chaos and disruptions to public order, instead of addressing the legitimate reasons behind people's dissatisfaction,” said 33-year old Czech Green MEP Markéta Gregorová.