European Union

Credit: Sanjit Pariyar/NurPhoto via AFP

By Andrew Firmin
LONDON, Mar 25 2026 (IPS)

Less than six months after Nepal’s Generation Z rose up in protest, the country has a new prime minister. A 35-year-old former rapper who soundtracked the protests swept to power in a landslide in the 5 March election.

Balendra Shah defeated former prime minister KP Sharma Oli, whose third stint as prime minister was cut short by the protests, beating him in his own turf. After years of fragile coalition governments, in which Sharma Oli and two other men of advancing age repeatedly swapped the role of prime minister, Nepal has chosen to change direction.

Gen Z-led protests

The September 2025 protests were triggered by the government’s banning of 26 social media platforms in an evident response to the ‘nepokids’ trend, in which people used social media to satirise the ostentatiously wealthy lifestyles of politicians’ family members, while most young people experienced daily economic struggles amid high inflation and youth unemployment. In a country where the median age is just 25, the ban was the final straw, activating long-simmering anger about corruption, poor public services and a political system that refused to listen to young people.

When young people took to the streets, the state unleashed violence. The deadliest day was 8 September, when some protesters broke into the parliamentary complex and police fired live military-grade ammunition, shooting many victims in the head. Nineteen people died that day, and overall at least 76 people died in the protests.

Rather than silence the protests, the state’s lethal crackdown swelled them, making clear this was about more than the social media ban; it was a struggle for Nepal’s future. Even more people took to the streets. On 9 September, Sharma Oli resigned. Some protesters turned to violence, while the army took over security and imposed a nationwide curfew. But events soon took a decisive turn. Chief Justice Sushila Karki was sworn in as interim prime minister on 12 September, kickstarting a process that led to the election. The interim government agreed to establish a Gen Z Council, a formal body designed to bridge the gap between the government and young people and enable them to hold it accountable and monitor implementation of reforms.

As the latest State of Civil Society Report sets out, Nepal’s movement inspired many of the year’s other Gen Z-led mobilisations. Nepali activists used the gaming platform Discord, including for a radical exercise in democracy that saw 10,000 people take part in online discussions that put forward Karki as interim prime minister. Morocco’s protesters also used Discord to coordinate their actions, while the Gen Z movement in Madagascar, where the army ultimately forced the government to quit, connected with Nepal’s Discord communities to learn from their organising. Movements in several countries adopted Nepal’s protest symbol, the skull-and-straw-hat flag from the One Piece manga, identifying themselves as part of the same global movement.

Around the world, Gen Z-led protests have commonly faced violent state repression but have forced real concessions: Bulgaria’s government quit, while politicians dropped unpopular policies in Indonesia and Timor-Leste. In Bangladesh, where a Gen Z-led protest movement ousted an authoritarian government in 2024, the country recently held its first credible election in almost two decades.

Time for change

The new energy unleashed by Nepal’s Gen Z-led protests was reflected in the registration of over 800,000 new voters, more parties standing than ever before, a profusion of younger candidates and an election campaign focused on corruption and good governance.

The result was a shock. Coalition governments are the norm in Nepal, but the centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) won an outright majority, taking 182 of 275 House of Representatives seats after a campaign that made intensive use of social media. The three established parties all sustained heavy losses.

Shah used his music to attack corruption and inequality, resonating with the Gen Z movement during the protests, when one of his songs was viewed over 10 million times on YouTube. But he isn’t a completely new political figure, having become mayor of the capital, Kathmandu, in a surprise result when he ran as an independent in 2022. His track record there suggests grounds for concern. He’s rarely made himself available for media questioning, preferring to communicate directly via social media, where he’s known for making controversial outbursts. He also received criticism for deploying police against street vendors and launching ‘demolition drives’ to clear illegally built structures with minimal notice, leading to clashes between police and locals.

Shah now has a mandate to deliver change, and expectations are high. But he faces the challenge of reforming a typically resistant bureaucracy while delivering on his economic promises amid difficult global conditions worsened by the Israeli-US war on Iran, which threatens the remittances sent by the many Nepali workers based in Gulf countries, which constitute one quarter of the country’s GDP. He’ll need to navigate the difficult foreign policy balance between Nepal’s two powerful and often antagonistic neighbours, China and India. The new government must also ensure accountability for human rights violations during the 2025 protests, starting with releasing the report of a commission set up to investigate protest deaths, which hasn’t yet been made public.

The obvious danger, given these challenges and an outsized mandate, is that the government will adopt a heavy-handed approach, pushing through change while failing to listen. This is precisely when civil society is needed, to step in to hold the new government to account and ensure it respects human rights, including the right to keep expressing dissent.

Nepal’s Gen Z movement must guard against co-option by the new administration. The new government must acknowledge the vital role of Nepal’s outspoken young generation by moving quickly to form and resource the Gen Z Council and fully respecting its autonomy. The movement that helped bring Shah to power must stay engaged.

Andrew Firmin is CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

For interviews or more information, please contact research@civicus.org

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');  

On Wednesday, plenary debated the outcome of the 19 March EU summit with European Council President António Costa and Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

On Wednesday, plenary debated the outcome of the 19 March EU summit with European Council President António Costa and Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

On Wednesday, plenary debated the outcome of the 19 March EU summit with European Council President António Costa and Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Roberta Metsola opened the plenary session in Brussels with a moment of silence to remember victims of terrorism, and recommit to combating radicalism, hatred and extremism.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Roberta Metsola opened the plenary session in Brussels with a moment of silence to remember victims of terrorism, and recommit to combating radicalism, hatred and extremism.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Roberta Metsola opened the plenary session in Brussels with a moment of silence to remember victims of terrorism, and recommit to combating radicalism, hatred and extremism.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

À l’occasion de la visite de José Manuel Albares à Alger, l’Algérie s’apprête à augmenter ses livraisons de gaz via le pipeline Medgaz. Un geste […]

L’article Medgaz à plein régime : Alger et Madrid scellent la fin du froid polaire est apparu en premier sur .

On Thursday 26 March the chair of the International Trade committee will give a press conference on EU-US Trade relations after the vote on the tariff aspects of the Turnberry agreement.
Committee on International Trade

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

On Thursday 26 March the chair of the International Trade committee will give a press conference on EU-US Trade relations after the vote on the tariff aspects of the Turnberry agreement.
Committee on International Trade

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

On Thursday 26 March the chair of the International Trade committee will give a press conference on EU-US Trade relations after the vote on the tariff aspects of the Turnberry agreement.
Committee on International Trade

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

On Wednesday, the Parliament and the Council decided to establish the future EU Customs Authority in Lille, France.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

On Wednesday, the Parliament and the Council decided to establish the future EU Customs Authority in Lille, France.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Le commerce mondial dépend d'un nombre étonnamment restreint de voies de passage étroites, souvent appelées "points de passage stratégiques" maritimes.

Dans une interview accordée à BBC Newsnight, cinq survivantes des abus de Jeffrey Epstein ont témoigné de l'ampleur des méfaits du financier déchu et de ce à quoi pourrait ressembler la justice.

The European Parliament spokespersons will hold a last-minute briefing on the 25-26 March plenary session today at 14.30.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

The European Parliament spokespersons will hold a last-minute briefing on the 25-26 March plenary session today at 14.30.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

L’Algérie accélère sa stratégie d’ouverture économique en s’appuyant sur son secteur énergétique. Dans un contexte de mutation du marché mondial de l’énergie, le pays franchit […]

L’article Nouvelle filiale pour Sonelgaz : l’Algérie avance ses pions sur le marché énergétique mondial est apparu en premier sur .

Dimanche 22 mars au soir, un avion de la compagnie Transavia effectuant la liaison Oran-Paris a dû atterrir d’urgence à Toulouse-Blagnac. Ce déroutement fait suite […]

L’article Malaise d’une femme enceinte, passager arrêté… Ce qui s’est passé à bord du vol Oran-Paris de Transavia est apparu en premier sur .

Wednesday 25 March

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP