Why Europe is protesting simultaneously

Georgia, Serbia, and now Türkiye – unprecedented protests sweep the continent. The more autocratic leaders emboldened by the international environment tighten their grip, the more citizens push back. While the EU remains limited in its response, brave citizen movements, mostly student-led, resist.

Hazar Deniz Eker and Julius E. O. Fintelmann

It wasn’t easy to navigate the crowd of one million protestors on Sunday night in front of Istanbul’s town hall. The tear gas aroma in the air did little to mute the chants calling for the release of Istanbul's mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu.

Seen as the most promising challenger to long-term president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Imamoğlu was arrested alongside countless other opposition politicians, journalists, activists, and citizens last week on bogus corruption and terrorism charges. With this step, the Turkish government is on the brink of becoming an autocracy in which opponents are chosen, not elected. The outcome of the protests, however, could still stop them short of that goal.

Just a week before, around 400,000 people demonstrated against the corruption of the Serbian government in Belgrade. This came after months of protests sparked by the collapse of a train station roof, killing 15 in November. Meanwhile, in Georgia, citizens have been blocking Tbilisi's main Rustaveli Avenue for 116 days in a row every evening. They protest against stolen elections in October and the de facto government's alignment with Russia.

Why does this happen at the same time?

"Autocrats reinforce each other", explains Anastasia Bezverkha, a researcher on nonviolent protests and a veteran of Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, to The European Correspondent. One autocrat's successes inspire others – creating a political and cultural international environment makes them take more risks.

In 2025, we can mainly thank US president Donald Trump’s administration for that environment. In his first two months, Trump cut US foreign aid funding, reduced military aid to Ukraine, and showed no interest in stopping foreign leaders from consolidating their power (there've been limited to no reactions to either the situation in Türkiye or Serbia). Not only has this strengthened autocrats across Europe, but it also left the EU in a weaker position.

During the ongoing protests in Serbia, USAID funding cuts for Serbian human rights groups were followed by government raids of their offices. Emboldened by the US administration, Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, continued his crackdown on the opposition while echoing Trump’s sentiments about USAID. The Serbian government also continues to build business ties with the Trump family, planning multiple American projects in Belgrade.

In Türkiye, Erdoğan has been consolidating his power for years but rarely has the government been in a more advantageous position internationally. Next to Trump, the EU’s dependency on Türkiye grew larger. The refugee deal, which sees Türkiye holding millions of refugees in exchange for EU funds, is an even more powerful card in Erdoğan’s hand now.

At a time when anti-immigrant sentiment looms at large over the continent, encouraged by electoral successes of right-wing parties, Erdoğan can leverage his threat to "open the gates" and send refugees to the EU again. At the same time, Trump’s reduced military support for Ukraine also means that the EU looks to Türkiye as a potential military ally against Russia, allowing Erdoğan to count on less EU condemnation for his actions.

Students defend democracy

As the international community allows autocrats to grab more power while the EU grows more dependent on them, democracies often rely on students to start the resistance. In Türkiye, the first big protest following İmamoğlu's arrest was organised by students of Istanbul University. In Serbia, the large national protest this month, which drew the biggest crowd ever in the country, was student-led.

"As a student, you have free time, energy, and the knowledge needed to rebel. That's why free academia is so necessary: in societies that fail to have universities as spaces of free expression, revolutions are either non-existent or become violent", according to Bezverkha.

And now, these student-led protests reach across the continent. Young protesters in that one-million-people crowd in Istanbul told us that after seeing posts go viral of protests in Tbilisi and Belgrade, they wished to have the same in Türkiye as a response to the deep economic and political frustration in the country. Now, one week after Serbia's largest protests ever, hundreds of thousands are out on the streets.

While autocratic leaders increasingly feed off each other, students also embolden each other's movements – and show that democracy, civil liberties, and economic freedom are nothing to take for granted.