An Analysis of Leftist Groups Involved in Riots Across Europe and the Revolutionary Groups Behind the Unrest
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.