Which countries have the most strikes in the EU?

By Inês Trindade Pereira & video by Baptiste Goudier

Published on

12/06/2026 - 9:00 GMT+2

Many European countries are often stereotyped as being prone to going on strike, and recent data would appear to back that up.

In the first quarter of 2026, Portugal (234), Italy (190), Spain (108), and France (105) reported the highest number of strikes among seven EU countries. That's according to figures analysed by AI data collector Strike Tracker, the Portuguese Directorate-General for Employment and Industrial Relations (DGERT), and the Italian institutional guarantor of the balance between the right to strike and user rights, CGSSE.