France, Oct. 23 -- Their demands vary, but they are united in wanting to make their often marginalised voices heard, sometimes even with radical methods in the face of heavy-handed policing.

"We are fighting and taking our future in our hands," said Damiano Fusa, 18, a student at Rome's Cavour high school, the first to be occupied in a wave of student takeovers that has spread across the Italian capital.

"We're not represented by anyone," Fusa told AFP, criticising both Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's hard-right coalition and previous centre-left governments for cutting education funding and ignoring young people's needs. Students are demanding action on soaring rents, more spending on education instead of defence and more job opportuni...