Last weekend (17/10/2026), we all witnessed the horrible escalation of student and youth protests in France, that turned into violence, destruction and civil arrest. The country was in flames with numerous demonstrations ongoing in most of its cities, while sadly, looting of countless local businesses also took place.
However, these protests did not errupt over a weekend. They were ongoing since September even though the media were rarely extensively reporting on them or the reasons behind the student mobilization, not until things turned ugly; it is a well known technique of the European establishment and media, to avoid delving in uncomfortable truths about the state in their countries, or the European Union itself.
These protests were not confined in France alone, but they also occured in Italy, Albania, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and even Austria and Serbia. Young people marched to protest against the rising cost of living, poor school and economic conditions, teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms, run-down buildings, and limited public investment in social programs and infrastructure.
Yet, the European elites are turning a blind eye to the fact that the continent's economies are failing, while they support the war in Ukraine, which has cost us billions over the past 4 years, plus more are needed to continue funding a lost war; Ukrainian President Zelensky has asked for further $78 billion in European aid for Ukraine, days before the riots in France turned ugly. Since the United States pulled back from funding Ukraine, Europe has become Kyiv’s chief backer. It has spent more than $255 billion so far, and Ukraine is seeking additional support.
Billions of euros are spent without our consent or opinion in a war, that only continues because of European tax payer's money. Billions that could fund all that the students need and require, or that European families and citizens need to cope with the rising fuel prices, however the EU under Ursula von der Leyen's leadership, opts to spend on supporting a non-EU member, Ukraine.
The result? Europe is burning while Mrs von der Leyen and her collaborators in EU, as well in our governments, continue to revel in the flames, just like the Roman Emperor Nero did, centuries ago. They refuse to listen to the European citizens, who they simply cannot live any longer with rising costs, the degradation of our living standards and all that because the European leadership decided to go to war against Russia and Vladimir Putin. And yet, it is Russia's economy that is failing according to our leaders, forcing the Russians to fight with washing machine parts!
This war was never about supporting Ukraine, rather securing the country's resources, plus counting on a potential Russian defeat, getting additional access to the Russian ones. Europe is getting poorer and is in desperate need of new resources, as the developing world is turning away from Western hegemony, it is forming BRICS and is seeking new ways of conducting business away from the dollar and Western market rules.
Initally the Americans and Europeans were on the same page and staunch in their support of Ukraine, however as we witness lately, USA under Donald Trump's Presidency is clearly moving on from its support for Ukraine, and focusing on America's interests first; something that Europe still hasn't managed to agree on.
Trump announced on October 9 that he had struck a deal to purchase diesel from Russia, pivoting away from a years-old Western policy that placed massive economic pressure on Moscow. The move is expected to strain Washington’s relationships with its European allies. So while the EU citizens are told that the high fuel and goods prices are necessary to support Ukraine, America goes and makes deals with Putin to secure Russian oil, that most likely will end up in Europe, but triple the price.
Consequently, not only we have to spend billions to arm Ukraine, we got to pay higher oil and gas prices, because in their wisdom our leaders decided to cut ties with Russia and apply 20+ rounds of sanctions to harm its economy and force it to wield to Western demands, but now thanks to Trump who went on and started a war on Iran which made the energy costs and shortage even worse, there is no end in sight to the spiraling upwards prices of almost everything!!
And to make matters even worse, the media and social media, focused mostly on the damage and looting that took place in France, but failed to discuss the root of the problem; wasting money on the war in Ukraine, rising fuel costs due to the embargo on Russian energy and the war in Iran, to the detriment of the European economy. The financial powerhouse of our continent- Germany, has been economically stangnant for some years now, since it relied on cheap Russian energy to fuel its growth. Now with the EU sanctions against Russia, persistently high energy prices, competition from China and excessive red tape which are adding to its structural crisis, Germany's export-led economic model faces unprecedented strain just as support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party reaches a new peak.
Only in last September, the far-right political party AfD, won key German state election, only falling just short of majority. Alternative für Deutschland surged to victory in Saxony-Anhalt as Friedrich Merz’s CDU slumped to disastrous result. The far-right is rising across Europe for years now, since the economic crisis, the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the countless refugee crises and now the war in Iran, have eroded European economies and the continent's citizens' living standards for the past 15 years.
Just two days after the French riots, there were demonstrations and counter-demonstration in Copenhagen, Denmark. One of them was organized by the movement Det Danske Folk in central Copenhagen, with slogans supporting what it called “fair and realistic remigration” and opposing Islamization, Sharia law and social control. The counterprotesters gathered under the slogan “No to remigration.”
This comes to no suprise, as the images that were pouring in on social media, showed a dispoportionate number of French youths of immigrant background, notably African-North African, being on the forefront of the looting and violence in most French cities. With countless photographs of non-European rioters being published on social media, another sign of decline as a European society became evident.
Europe’s far right, but also US MAGA supporters, seized on protest violence to push authoritarian anti-immigration agenda across the Western world. Calls for re-migration are becoming more prominent, as they reveal a divided, unequal and toxic society. This is of course partially understandable, as Europe never had a viable solution and clear immigration policies to deal with an issue that has been going on for over a decade now, since the Syrian refugee crisis.
You see, Europeans are dealing with immigration based on ideological debates and divides, while the phenomenon should be approached pragmatically. Left wing leaning politicians, campaigners and followers support the opening of borders and a multiethnic society, believing that "a brotherhood of man" will prevail and a harmonious society will emerge miraculously. The nationalists and right wing suporters on the other hand, support a nation state and less or no immigration at all, something that is unrealistic in the modern world and with economies that rely on immigration for cheap labour.
I am sorry to say, but both are delusional. How many Europeans would aspire to work as kitchen porters and how would anyone expect some jobs to be filled without legal immigration? On the other hand, bringing countless migrants in your country without proper integration or housing and jobs to offer them, while you keep them as second class citizens who rely on benefits and free housing, create bitter angry youths that hate the society they were born in. They consequently are easily radicalized by the Far Left or Islamist organizations and thus in every opportunity they get, they show their discontent.
I am an immigrant myself and although not too often, I also had to face injustice, racism and discrimination in my adopted country, which of course led to temporary bitterness. If these conditions were ongoing for years or generations, when immigrants are cramped in ghettos with no equal opportunities to the rest of the native population, that bitterness becomes toxic, anger, and even hate. So why do European countries import more immigrants than they really want or need? Is it because of the colonial guilt, leftist ideology or a need to portray themselves with an image of an open society, for PR like purposes?
If European nations feel that they need to make up for the damage they did to their former colonies, they could instead repay or assist their former colonies to develop economically, so that their youths can have a future in their homeland. These aspiring migrant young people will have to realize that Europe is not a solution to their problems and only a handfull of them will be successful. Therefore, allowing thousands to settle for years in Europe, since the process of approving or rejecting someone's refugee status across the EU is a very slow process and in many cases like in Ireland, four-in-five asylum seekers issued with deportation orders in the last five years remain unaccounted for, is simply unsustainable.
New Freedom of information figures in Ireland, show that 4,631 deportation orders were issued to people whose application for asylum was rejected between 2018 and last year. The figures show that Gardaí enforced 314 of the orders – which makes up around 7%. The question is why are our governments so slow in applying the law and solving the immigration crisis, when they clearly see that the native population is having enough of paying, and the immigrants are getting frustrated and angry in the process, resulting in a dangerous toxic mix in our societies.
Only last September we saw another migrant crisis taking place, this time in Spain's African enclave, Ceuta. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated across Spain on 2 September over the government's handling of the migration crisis in Ceuta, following weeks of unrest in the Spanish enclave itself. Anger over the arrival of more than 70,000 migrants has developed into sustained mobilization involving residents and migrants, with violence becoming increasingly prominent in late August. Residents have protested against the central government's handling of the crisis and the accommodation of migrants, with some demonstrations escalating into direct attacks on migrants. Migrants, meanwhile, have protested over access to asylum and poor living conditions, with some also clashing with security forces.
The problem is why this continues to happen, why our governments unable to deal with it and potentially who is behind the weaponization of this problem and to what cause. Ultimately, perhaps the Hungarian and Polish approach in this issue is more honest and feasible. I have been recently in Budapest and although it has certainly become a more cosmopolitan multicultural city since I last visited, as you see migrants of all backgrounds working in hotel, tourism and hospitality industries, you notice the lack of refugees and unemployed migrants hanging around, waiting for the application to be approved.
They decline to accept scores of illegal immigrants and opt to control of how many people will get working permits, often clashing with EU institutions and other member states. You may dislike their approach, but it works much better than the pretentious messy reality that exists in Western European nations, which now are struggling to keep the Far Right at bay and from seizing power. The AfD in Germany is vowing to abolish the Schengen and Germany to leave the euro, while in France after the riots, the looting, and the images of young migrants destroying cities and burning historic buildings, the French Far Right leader Marine Le Pen is now widening her lead ahead of 2027 presidential vote, against both centre-right Édouard Philippe and hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
If both Germany and France move to right-wing, nationalist policies, we may as well forget Europe as we know it. A continent where rich nations vote either to leave EU (Brexit), or never to fully join as the recent rejection of full EU membership by Iceland last August shows us, opting to safeguard national interests against European ones in an increasingly changing and multipolar world. Additionally, we got plenty of poorer nations in Eastern Europe aspiring to become members in order to raise their living standards, but their aspirations are put on hold by the EU and could potentially be entirely derailed, should Le Pen and the AfD win the upcoming elections.
All the above are painting a very sad and bleak picture for Europe and its future, when even its closest ally USA, is turning away from it and seeks to engage with all rising players of a new multipolar world. Europe on the other hand, opts to hold on to outdated ideologies and morality that existed since the end of WW2, the collapse of Communism, the end of the colonization era, and instead of viewing things pragmatically and taking action, they thrive on chewing on old ideas and doctrines, in a never ending philosophical inner struggle.
The only positive occurence of the past 6 months, was when Canada was invited by the EU Commission to become the EU’s first-ever “associate member”, in order for both parties to deal with the increasingly hostile and unpredictable USA, their former close ally. That is a good move, especially if more countries like Australia follow, as is discussed. However, this won't be enough to save Europe from decline, or a social and economic blight. We need to push back against the Far Right in order to maintain what we have built over the past decades, and finally end the war in Ukraine and re-engage with Russia and all BRICS economies. We need cheap energy in order to re-industrialize our continent and catch up with giants such as China and USA in technological achievements, when Europe's amount close to nothing when compared with the two aforementioned competitors.
It is necessary to better the living conditions for Europeans, as is dealing with the migrant crisis effectively, to aspire security, law and order among our citizens, which in turn will stabilize our societies and in extend our economies. If we fail, there is no going back. Europe's future is a stake, but our leaders are proving to be short-sighted, corrupt and increasingly unequipped for this task, hence I fear more riots, instability and even a total collapse of the EU and Europe as a whole and that will be the greatest disaster we will have to live through in our generation.
First Published in The Eblana European Democratic Movement
