Massive Gen Z protests set to sweep cities across Germany

Young people are to take part in demonstrations across Germany on Saturday, following the example of their peers in France and other countries who have been calling for better educational prospects and future opportunities.

In Germany, organizers said there is also to be a focus on rejecting military conscription and on demanding more protection for the climate as the Earth warms, with potentially catastrophic effects.

Saturday's protests are being called for by the youth initiative "Gen Z regelt" ("Gen Z sorts it") through a social media campaign

The group itself will directly organize four of the protests — in Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich —, with associated demonstrations to take place in some 30 other cities.

It has explicitly called for peaceful protests without the violence that marred recent demonstrations in France.

Focus on security fears

This has not stopped several conservative politicians, notably from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU), from warning that similar scenes could occur.

"Gen Z regelt" has, however, criticized what it sees as a wrong focus on the possibility of violence at the protests.

"It shows that our point about not being taken seriously or being heard is right. No one wants to work with us on the issues at stake but instead always put the topic of violence on the agenda," an organizer of the Munich protest told a press conference in Cologne.

However, other lawmakers have come out in support of the protests.

The leader of the parliamentary party of the Greens, Katharina Dröge, told the DPA news agency: "Young people are rightly furious because the federal government does not take their wishes seriously enough."

The Left Party leader, Luigi Pantisano, also said it was the right time for protests as the government mulls reforms of the nursing care and pensions systems, calling them "social cruelties."

"Gen Z" broadly refers to the generation born between 1997 and 2012.