An Analysis of Leftist Groups Involved in Riots Across Europe and the Revolutionary Groups Behind the Unrest
An Analysis of Leftist Groups Involved in Riots Across Europe and the Revolutionary Groups Behind the Unrest
October 19, 2026
The riots in France, allegedly sparked by teacher shortages in a Paris suburb, have grown into a wave of unrest across Europe. Rioting, arson, looting, and attacks on police have occurred in France, Belgium, Italy, and Albania.
In Portugal, police clashed with protesters while clearing a housing camp in Porto, leaving 37 protesters injured and one officer hurt. Spain, Greece, Germany, and Austria have seen marches, encampments, and school blockades. In nearly every country, communist parties, socialist youth wings, Trotskyist groups, and left-wing labor confederations have been documented organizing, joining, or promoting the demonstrations.
The movement began on September 17 at Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Créteil and spread nationwide within two weeks. On October 17, it merged with protests over fuel prices and the cost of living, drawing between 550,000 and 800,000 people. Rioters destroyed the historic Limoges town hall and looted shops in at least nine cities. The Interior Ministry reported nearly 2,400 arrests that day, and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has called for localized curfews.
The French government has attributed the movement to La France Insoumise (France Unbowed, or LFI), describing it as a maneuver organized by LFI and its ultra-left proxies. The president of the Union syndicale lycéenne, the high school union that called the first national day of action, ran on an LFI-led list in local elections. The French Communist Party issued an October 14 statement calling for demonstrations on October 17 and a day of strikes on November 5.
Smaller revolutionary organizations, including the Union de la Jeunesse Communiste and the Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste, called for expanding the movement through strikes. The country’s major union confederations, led by the CGT, joined the marches. A Fox News Digital investigation identified 54 organizations in the wider French protest network.
In Belgium, the protests began in Liège on October 1 and spread to Brussels, Mons, and Charleroi. Footage from Liège showed demonstrators carrying material from RedFox, the high school youth wing of the Marxist Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB). The party’s university wing, Comac, operates on campuses in Brussels and Liège.
Belgian public broadcaster RTBF reported that masked outsiders were inciting destruction at the Liège protests. On October 9, a Brussels march organized by the socialist FGTB union drew 30,000 people, according to police, with about 1,000 rioters operating on its margins. Defense Minister Theo Francken accused the PTB of links to the violence, an allegation that party general secretary Peter Mertens publicly rejected.
In Germany, the protests have so far consisted of school blockades and small rallies. An October 8 rally at the French Embassy in Berlin was organized by Die Linke’s (The Left) Neukölln and Mitte chapters and the Berlin branch of LFI. It had support from Linksjugend Solid (Left Youth Solid), Klasse Gegen Klasse (Class Against Class), and several Trotskyist groups. The Berlin police union warned that Linksjugend Solid could hijack the protests.
In Italy, the communist high school group OSA (Opposizione Studentesca d’Alternativa, or Alternative Student Opposition) launched school occupations in Turin on October 5 under the slogan “Let’s do as in France.” With its university counterpart, Cambiare Rotta (Change Course), it organized a national student strike in 40 cities on October 16. Cost-of-living marches turned violent in Milan, Turin, and Bologna on October 17 and 18.
In Bologna, Carrelli Vuoti (Empty Shopping Carts) called the march alongside local collectives Cua, Crash, and Plat. Cua stands for Collettivo Universitario Autonomo (Autonomous University Collective). In Italy, autonomous collectives are far-left groups independent of parties and unions, governed by open assemblies, and committed to direct action, including occupations and unauthorized marches. Cua and Plat activists led an unauthorized march of about 500 people. The clashes left 75 officers injured, and five people were arrested, four of them minors.
In Turin, ANSA reported that antagonist collectives, social centers, and pro-Palestinian activists took control of the march. Antagonist collectives are militant far-left groups opposed to the state and established parties; social centers, often housed in occupied buildings, serve as their political and cultural hubs. In Milan, police detained 271 young people on Sunday alone and arrested 32, including 23 minors.
Albania’s revolt targets Edi Rama’s Socialist government. Student protesters attacked the Prime Minister’s Office, the Constitutional Court, and the Bank of Albania with stones and Molotov cocktails. Arlind Qori, leader of the left-wing Lëvizja Bashkë, called on Albanians to rise alongside the students and vowed to bring down Rama. The conservative Democratic Party also backs the protesters, making Albania the one country where the right and left share the streets.
On the Iberian Peninsula, established communist parties are participating openly in the unrest. In Portugal, the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) announced that its general secretary, Paulo Raimundo, would join a party delegation at an October 17 demonstration in Lisbon organized by the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP), a union confederation closely associated with the communist movement.
In Spain, Izquierda Unida (United Left), a left-wing coalition that includes the Communist Party of Spain, announced its participation in housing marches that drew 70,000 people in Madrid. Two major union confederations, Workers’ Commissions (CCOO), with communist roots, and the General Union of Workers (UGT), with socialist roots, have agreed to a general strike. Socialist youth groups clashed with police at Madrid’s Complutense University on October 14.
In Lisbon, housing assemblies, local groups campaigning for affordable housing and tenants’ rights, have called for an “Iberian general strike” across Portugal and Spain on November 11.
In Greece, students set up tents in Athens’ Syntagma Square. The Communist Party of Greece announced that a delegation from its youth wing, KNE, led by Central Council secretary Thodoris Kotsandis, marched in Paris on October 17. This is the clearest documented case of a communist organization from one country physically joining protests in another. In Austria, the national student union ÖH, whose vice chair belongs to the Socialist Students association, held a protest in Vienna on October 13 against university budget cuts.
The next coordinated action is scheduled for November 20, when a coalition of student and youth organizations across Europe has called an International Youth Strike under the slogan “Fight for Our Future, Not Their Wars.” Organizers are calling for walkouts, blockades, and occupations. Announced in August, before the French riots, the strike reflects organizing networks that predate the violence.
The documented record establishes broad participation by communist, socialist, and revolutionary-left organizations across at least nine countries, along with direct cross-border contact among them. The worst violence, in Milan, Brussels, and several French cities, has largely been carried out by loosely organized youths whom police have not tied to any single organization.
This article is the first in a series examining these groups country by country. Upcoming installments in The Gateway Pundit will cover France’s school revolt and the parties and unions behind it; the Marxist youth wings active in Belgium and Germany; Italy’s communist student groups and collectives; Albania’s Flamingo Revolution; and the communist parties of Portugal, Spain, and Greece, along with the November 20 youth strike.
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Author: Antonio Graceffo
#UDPATE: SHOOTING IN COLUMBUS, OHIO. Police received a shots fired call at approximately 2:30 PM in the 2200 block of Albert Avenue in Columbus, Ohio.
