It is almost as if a third of EU nations are going through the early stages of a European Spring as protests have broken out. France, with its long tradition of street protests, saw peaceful demonstrations transform into riots as cars were set on fire, public buildings stormed and a looting spree engulfed various cities of the old Republic.
The Arab Spring was said to have leapt from a humble Tunisian cart pusher standing up to authority. Things appear far worse in France today that is experiencing one of its worst civil unrests in years after a peaceful student-led protest movement against deficiencies in the school system and infra ran for weeks.
The anxiety around everything concerning the present and the future — cost-of-living indices defying gravity with petroleum and energy prices constantly rising due to the Iran war, lack of satisfying job opportunities for youth starting out on their life journey and general discontent — has been energising far-left protests even as a confrontation between the far-right and the far-left is looming electorally as the curtain begins to descend on the President and his era of Macronism.
The blame game is on as leaders in power take potshots at insurrectionist elements and radical far-left groups, as Macron did. That he was cavorting in an event with Celine Dion while protests were raging may not have drawn much public sympathy for one of the imposing political figures of Europe in the last decade and more.
The pattern is visible in other European nations too where political contests are brewing between the extremes and economic hardship, more than deprivation, which is rarer in welfare states, is driving the young onto the streets, as in Belgium, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Spain, Germany and Austria.
Much of the unrest has had to do with inadequate education funding, school conditions deteriorating to the extent of rats running around classrooms, fuel prices and urban housing crises, with shouts of political grievances emerging conveniently at what some deem as an opportunity to put pressure on the regimes of the day.
Whatever be their political sympathy towards protesters who may be mostly from the deprived classes, there is no government that will not act to keep order and protect the trust in the administration as capable of protecting property even if criminal gangs are the ones inspiring the riots against symbols of power, essentially of capitalism and the looting aimed at commercial enterprises.
The world economy tanking at this juncture is not helping as it takes hits from wars causing disruption of global supply chains. However, at its heart, this is a display of public hyper-anxiety about their lot in life today, clearly being flamed by political clashes everywhere, including in India where students protesting corrupt exam practices as in the leaking of question papers began a movement that has taken off to highlight the right to vote.
Democracies must attempt a delicate balancing act between giving space for dissent and sustaining public order, between sympathy for the protester and contempt for the unruly, between human rights and authority. And regime changes do happen periodically in polls in which the public still has a say unlike in nations where the right exists not at all or stays only on paper.
It is a difficult time politically for the world, but there is no guarantee that victory for the far-right, as predicted in France and Brazil, will help stem the discontent nor can victory for the liberal and the far-left guarantee a solution to problems. What with the centrists seeming to fail too, today’s world remains the biggest challenge for leaders.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
