In Brazil, they rallied online by the millions, sharing videos and spreading memes. In Serbia, they cycled across Europe and ran ultramarathons to make their voices heard. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
Both movements burst into international public view last month as they became central during election campaigns to the pushback against authoritarianism. What they also offered, however, was a window into a wider phenomenon playing out across the globe, as youth-led movements reshape political landscapes.
“Gen Z is rising,” said Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard Kennedy School. “It is abundantly clear that a significant proportion of gen Z is tired of sitting on the sidelines while their political systems fail them.”
Researchers have documented at least 25 protests around the world in which this age group – roughly those between the ages of 14 and 29 – has played a role.
From Bangladesh to Belgium and Italy to India, it seems gen Z, who account for about a third of the world’s population, have found their voice. “Gen Z may be experiencing a global political awakening,” Chenoweth wrote in a recent essay.
Their reasons for taking to the streets have varied widely, from protesting against corruption and an unequal playing field to calling for more investment in education, affordable housing and action on the climate crisis.
Many of the first protests to make waves were in Asia and Africa. In 2024, students in Dhaka, Bangladesh, made global headlines after they pulled off what was described as the world’s first successful gen Z-led revolution.
The protests began over a quota law but swiftly snowballed into a wider show of discontent against the increasingly autocratic rule of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. Two months later, Hasina resigned and fled the country by helicopter after being, as the Associated Press reported, “chased out by young protesters”.
Two years later and 4,000 miles away, students were at the helm of another revolution in Serbia, pushing back against a government that had steadily tightened its grip on the media and stuffed institutions with party loyalists.
Late last month, Serbia’s students’ movement was catapulted from the streets to the halls of power as they ousted Aleksandar Vučić in elections, bringing an end to his party’s 14 years in power.
Students and young people have long been at the forefront of the push for change, the analysts Cait Dallaire and Sebastian Dittgen wrote recently, citing the US civil rights movement and the 2011 Arab spring.
“What is unique about the current movement is the infrastructure of mobilisation: TikTok and X amplify and accelerate grievances; Discord servers and group chats enable decentralised planning; virtual private networks and mirrored content help organisers circumvent internet shutdowns,” they said.
It was this potent combination – young people in the streets and social media – that helped drive Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s comeback to win Brazil’s presidential election last month. After a bruising loss in the first round to the rightwing senator Flávio Bolsonaro, there was dismay in the country’s political left.
That was until students from the Fluminense Federal University mobilised in a pro-Lula march, setting off a wave of similar actions across the country. Soon after, the congressman and Lula ally André Janones, 42, created a WhatsApp channel called “Lula’s Army” that attracted millions of people looking to help boost pro-Lula content on social media.
On the night of his victory, Lula recognised their power. “I want to thank the generosity of Brazil’s young people who took to the streets to defend democracy,” he said.
Some politicians have sought to engage gen Z from the start. In the US, Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for New York mayor combined a canny use of social media with a legion of about 50,000 volunteers that had young people at its heart. The New York Times wrote that “volunteering for Mr Mamdani’s campaign became a salve” for young New Yorkers as the campaign became not just about “mobilising, but socialising”.
It was a nod to the global context in which many gen Zers have come of age; one riven by conflicts such as the Israel-Gaza war, the escalating climate crisis and the rise of nationalism, while the rules that have shaped the international order since the second world war are fraying.
In recent weeks, youth-led protests have begun to sweep Europe, from school students in France demanding better conditions in which to work to those in Spain who pitched tents to rally for affordable housing.