Youth Protests Across Europe Raise Far-Right Concerns at EU Parliament
MEPs and European Union officials in Strasbourg are assessing youth protests that began in France and have spread to other countries. Dave Keating reports that…
Unrest that began around national grievances is now crossing borders in Europe. In Strasbourg, MEPs and European Union officials are discussing what the spread of youth protests could mean, according to journalist Dave Keating, who spoke with them during a European Parliament plenary session.
The protests have disrupted travel and events in France, while demonstrations elsewhere have drawn inspiration from the French riots. Keating said the people he spoke with were increasingly worried that far-right parties could gain power by promising law and order and the “remigrating” of non-white people.
Keating reported that some people expected to attend the plenary and related conferences could not reach Strasbourg because of the violence in France. French ministers were unable to leave Paris, he wrote, partly for their safety and partly to coordinate the response. A delegation from Japan was also reportedly told by its government that France was not safe to visit at the moment.
The impact extends beyond the protests themselves: disrupted travel has kept participants from political and conference events, while the unrest has become a subject of concern among officials at the European Parliament. Keating’s account describes a movement whose causes differ from country to country, but whose images and political effects travel across borders.
That shift is drawing attention. Keating said protests in Germany, Italy, Belgium and Spain were citing the French riots as inspiration. Images of burning buildings and assaults against police were circulating across national borders on social media, he wrote.
National causes, a wider European mood
Keating said the protesters were not demonstrating against the European Union. Their grievances, he wrote, were national, even as a broader feeling was taking shape across Europe. He described the movements as connected by shared anger, distrust and despair, while noting that the reasons for youth protests vary between countries.
“The consistent message: people feel it is becoming more and more likely that the far right is about to take power across Europe on a platform to restoring law and order and ‘remigrating’ non-white people – with the support of Moscow and Washington,” Keating wrote. He added that this prospect was “terrifying.”
His report also distinguishes the current spread from violence at French protests, which he said was not new. What he described as unusual was the simultaneous reach of protest movements into other European countries and the way social media images helped carry the unrest’s influence across borders.
Keating recounted seeing the damaged Bellecour Pavilion in Lyon while travelling from Barcelona to Strasbourg. The building, which he described as 174 years old, had been burned down by rioters on Saturday. He wrote that people gathered around the smouldering ruins, stunned and silent.
He said the sight brought back a memory of standing among people in New York after 9/11, while stressing that the situations were not comparable. The feeling, he wrote, was of being at a turning point without knowing what would come next.
Keating said violence had prevented some attendees from reaching Strasbourg, while the cross-border protests had become part of the discussion at the Parliament session. The pavilion in Lyon had stood for 174 years before it was burned.
Source: davekeating.substack.com
