There are various ways to interpret the wave of social unrest currently setting fire to France, Spain, Belgium, Germany, and even Albania—despite clear differences in the modes of protest—and now spreading to Italy. At the heart of the triggers behind this street violence are housing, education, rising fuel costs, social justice, wars, and civil liberties, albeit with differing emphasis and tones. There is a bit of everything—and then some. Yet, in a democracy, these are issues resolved through political and union negotiations, through dialogue, not through extreme violence that devolves into devastation, destruction, raids, and havoc.
One is led to think that those generating social ferocity are the primary enemies of the very democracy they claim to demand and the liberties they advocate for, especially those of others. It remains to be asked whether they act on their own initiative or unwittingly become “useful idiots” in the hands of highly sophisticated minds with crystal-clear goals: creating social turmoil, destroying symbols of democracy, laying waste to cities, causing damage borne by the public, and proving to observers that in the countries where this fiery violence occurs, insecurity reigns, democracy is weak, ephemeral, and faltering, and there is a need for a change in management—for someone who can provide the answers current governments fail to deliver.
Sociologically speaking, this is the dramatic and devastating underside of that “liquid modernity” Zygmunt Bauman foresaw, not yet cleansed of the dregs of political interests that step-by-step lead from the particular toward a new world order forged by autarchic power brokers. An unwritten rule remains: a left wing that creates social disorder fuels the rise of the far right, and conversely, the latter—when wielding the axe of ethnic cleansing—fuels the left.
In Spain, the Sánchez government was forced to resign over the rising protests regarding housing and its lukewarm handling of the Ceuta influx. In France, street clashes, marches, demonstrations, and gratuitous violence provoked by infiltrators, thugs, and common criminals have put the spotlight on education and all the shortcomings of a school system that until yesterday comparative pedagogy (within the OECD) defined as a jewel in the crown of training; all this is pushing Macron to the ropes and feeding the campaign to conquer the Élysée Palace by Marine Le Pen and her Rassemblement National. In Spain and France, politics and elections, the overturning of the status quo, and the conquest of power are the true elephant in the room behind these street protests.
The same is happening in Germany, where the AfD compounds issues like the country’s Islamization, social order, the defense of Western civilization against the wave of Arab-Muslim culture, and the economic crisis of giants like Volkswagen with their announced layoffs.
The Italian situation looks no different, a year ahead of the general election: the protest clearly reveals a post-ideological inspiration seeking to use the bludgeon of welfare and social issues to unseat the sitting government. In this setting, the well-known aphorism is inverted—power no longer seems to corrupt those who lack it, but rather the opposite. This is not merely an early electoral campaign, but a long, orchestrated campaign of disinformation across social media, stuffed with lies and fueled by incitement to revolt; unfortunately, this is also occurring within certain political parties and inside the halls of democratic institutions.
Observing videos of urban devastation, looted shops, vandalized artwork, and attacks on police officers—who are the true defenders of our civil liberties—and exploring the demographics of the protesters, one discovers that many are minors or very young people. This raises the question of whether their parents are aware of these acts of hooliganism committed by their children.
However, a fundamental question must be asked beforehand: who is recruiting these kids, and how? Who manages the word-of-mouth in an organized and calculated manner through online chats, directing them—even pulling them from foreign countries—to these squares of destruction, and with what enticements?
There is only one answer: politics is the main actor in this initiation—politics understood as the driver and director of social behavior. For years, pro-Putin propaganda has passed through certain national newspapers or through the voices of commentators who make us believe Russia respects the independence of European nation-states (except when provoking or threatening them), portraying Europe and its member states as a den of corrupt elites unconcerned with the real problems of the people.
Kremlin philosopher Alexander Dugin expressed it this way in several posts: “The more chaos, the better. These Europeans want to fight against us: how do they think that can happen when they can’t even guarantee a minimum level of order in their own cities?”… “Le Pen, soon, now!”… And regarding Meloni: “She ruined everything, Italy deserves more, much more.”
In recent days, Russian Ambassador Paramonov himself spoke of “another Italy” opposed to the war, citing the opposition, activists, and civil society against the backdrop of an electoral campaign that is effectively already underway. Strange, considering that this war has been willed and ruthlessly waged for over four years by Russia itself. Strange that in this Italy, no one organizes marches against Russian aggression and the dictator Putin.
To be sure, all the turmoil and havoc caused by the protests plaguing various EU member states ultimately weaken the image of an already fragile Europe, depicting it as a clique of oligarchs who ought to be ousted from EU institutions, or suggesting those institutions should be dismantled in favor of individual nations: after all, a protecting godfather can be found elsewhere.
Certainly, Europe—as Sylvie Goudard wrote—is “dying of greatness” and hard to govern as a unified entity; certainly, well-meaning actors alone are not enough to defend it from the concentric attacks of superpowers. However, our history, our inherited culture, and the legal civilization expressed by our democracies and our Constitutions will not be erased by a few thousand rioters and their hidden handlers.
Of this we must have full awareness and determination, beyond fleeting wills.
Our history, our inherited culture, and the legal civilization expressed by our democracies and our Constitutions will not be erased by a few thousand rioters and their hidden handlers.
Translated with the assistance of Gemini.
