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 filled institutions with party loyalists. In Morocco, more than 2,000 people were charged and many received harsh prison sentences after a 2025 movement known as Gen Z 212 targeted officials over corruption, neglected public services and a lack of opportunities.
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.
Many of the first protests to make waves were in Asia and Africa. Analysts have been swift to point to links between the movements, and at times the foundations laid in one protest have given rise to others.
In Germany, thousands took to the streets against the cost of living and called for more investment in education, health and climate action, in a movement organised by a group calling itself Gen Z regelt! — Gen Z will sort this.
The protests have offered a window into a wider phenomenon, as youth-led movements reshape political landscapes. Their outcomes have varied sharply, from the fall of long-standing governments to mass arrests and harsh prison sentences.
Weeks later, in Mexico, youth-led protests over corruption and crime led to clashes with police in which dozens of people were arrested.
In Serbia, protesters cycled across Europe and ran ultramarathons to make their voices heard.
Late last month, Serbia’s student movement was catapulted from the streets to the halls of power when it ousted Aleksandar Vučić in elections, ending his party’s 14 years in office.
Civicus, a non-profit that monitors global civic freedoms, said in a recent analysis: “Because they question the distribution of economic and political power, gen Z-led protests have invariably been met with state violence.”.