by Lynda Rose, Christian Today (Photo: Wikimedia Creative Commons)
Last weekend we once again saw violent protests break out across Europe – even in usually peaceful Switzerland!
In Germany, the cities of Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg all saw the police use water cannons to try and quell violent looting and disperse protesters. And while the demonstrations were ostensibly led by students protesting substandard educational provision and social inequality, Germany’s interior Minister, Alexander Dobrindt, was quick to blame the violence and general chaos on exploitation by leftwing extremists and members of the immigrant community – the latter claim being backed up by Andreas Rosskopf, chairman of the GdP’s federal police division, after his comments were attacked.
Albania too saw an eruption of violence, with black-clad, masked protesters throwing Molotov cocktails and paving stones at the police, which Prime Minister Edi Rami blamed on the deliberate radicalisation of young people “by dark forces in Europe and the US”.
And in France, where demonstrations against the failing educational system and the sky-rocketing cost of living and energy prices started the move some three weeks ago, violent protests once again erupted. This time, in Paris, there were a mere 770 arrests (compared with some 2,400 a fortnight ago), but French prosecutors have now launched an attempted murder investigation, after highly incendiary and powerful Molotov cocktails were thrown directly at the police. One police officer, whose leg was set on fire, told French newspaper Le Figaro, “We faced hostile individuals who are not protesters. These adversaries are there with the intent to harm those who represent the State.”
Yet again, the violence was attributed to far-left activists no doubt seeking to smash the system, fight the police, and bring down the government – indeed President Macron promised action against “those who sought to bring down the Republic”. According to the left-leaning publication, The Local: “Many of the looters come from France’s disadvantaged and racially mixed suburbs but are mainly French – the children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren of immigrants.”