Europe's Pension Burden Pits Retirees Against the Young, Fueling a Wave of Protests

Sébastien Ducros, a 36-year-old data analyst in France, supports the student protests spreading across his country, and he has settled on an explanation for why the schools are falling apart. In his view, a huge share of public money goes to retirees while much else is neglected. He says it feels strange to say, but he believes people like his parents, who are about to retire, are in a position where they could give up some of their pension payments.

Laurent Grinwald, 72, sees it differently. He recently retired after decades as a postal worker and does not want his pension trimmed, least of all to pay for other state services, especially as rents and living costs have climbed. He worked all those years, he says, and now the message seems to be that the state will start taking a bit more.

Their disagreement sits at the center of mass antigovernment demonstrations planned for Saturday in France. It also echoes recent protests led by frustrated young people in Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy and Portugal. The question is whether the needs of the young should be overshadowed by the pensions of their parents and grandparents, routinely the largest items in European national budgets. Jorge Galindo, director of the independent Spanish think tank EsadeEcPol, calls it a generational clash. Spain has some of the most generous pensions in Europe.

The pressure comes from several directions. Pensions take about 40 percent of social protection spending in the European Union. Defense costs, driven by American pressure and Russian aggression, have made it harder for governments to balance their books, and high interest rates have raised the cost of servicing debt. Rising rents and house prices add to the sense of unfairness. A recent EU survey found that only 38 percent of people aged 15 to 30 think policymakers weigh the long-term consequences of their decisions, and only a third believe young people today have the same chance of success as those 30 years ago.

Governments have tried to ease the burden quietly. Many have left each retiree's payment intact while gradually raising the age of eligibility, to 67 from 65, for example; Denmark plans 70 by 2040. Even that has proved costly politically. When President Emmanuel Macron tried in 2023 to lift France's retirement age to 64 from 62, the protests were so furious that the government froze the measure. That left France, which has one of Europe's highest debt levels, saying it cannot afford more for education, and that is the grievance driving the current youth anger. Britain plans to save billions by slowing the rate at which pensions rise. Spain raised its pension age to 67 in most cases in 2011, but its current left-wing government tied pension increases to inflation, protecting recipients and straining the budget. To offset that, Spain has opened its doors to immigrant labor, with more than 1.7 million foreigners joining its workforce since 2018. They add tax revenue, but experts note they too will age. The OECD projects Spain will spend 17.3 percent of GDP on pensions in 2050, roughly four points more than now, the equivalent in today's terms of an extra $67 billion a year. Spain currently spends about $79 billion on education.

Many young protesters are reluctant to blame their elders. Alice Cossa, 22, who protested recently in Venice, says the topic has never come up. On the left, demonstrators say pensions and benefits could be funded by taxing the rich and corporations; on the right, some propose cutting immigration, blaming immigrants for absorbing welfare. Some feel wealthy retirees' pensions deserve reassessment. Alejandro Rojano, 28, a Madrid bank employee who shares a basement apartment and earns under 2,000 euros a month, says even his nonagenarian grandparents receive far more than he does. He argues no party would dare cut the benefits of so dependable a voting bloc.

Galindo suggests young people may need to form a single-issue voting bloc, which could become pivotal in coalition governments with only a handful of seats. But young people are a shrinking share of the population, while older Europeans, more active in unions and parties, are growing in number. Middle-aged Europeans also hesitate to cut a benefit they expect to collect. Daniel Ramo, 46, left a Madrid teachers' strike over low pay and crowded classrooms, earning €2,100 a month after taxes, and said he is on strike knowing he will have to borrow from his father, whose pension makes him the family's top earner.

Retirees see themselves as holding families together. Encarna Matilla, 72, walking in Madrid's Retiro Park, says she and her husband earn more than their children. Her 88-year-old husband, who worked from age 14 to 70, receives €2,700 a month, 60 percent above Spain's median salary, and helps support their great-grandchildren. "We are the safety net," she said. Saturday's French marches will test how far that argument carries.