In the early days of the student protests in France, mainstream Western media took the protesters’ claims about poor school facilities and declining resources at face value. Only when the violence spread across the country, and to some of its European neighbours, did people begin to ask whether deeper causes were at play.
Leftists blame social problems, from the cost-of-living pressures linked to the war in Ukraine to rising unemployment, especially among the young. Right-wing critics blame Islamists, antifascists, radical environmentalists and, of course, immigrants.
A Financial Times report said: “EU regulators are examining possible foreign interference and disinformation campaigns around the French riots and outbursts of violence and looting in other European countries. According to security officials, pro-Russian and far-right social media accounts linked to previous disinformation campaigns have spread violent videos in an attempt to sow more chaos. Iran and Algeria are also suspected of being behind some of the messaging, experts said.”
As I follow the unrest unfolding in Europe, I find it uncanny how closely it parallels the 2019 anti-government riots in Hong Kong. Such mass disturbances almost always have many causes, including underlying social malaise and long-standing grievances. There is no single causal factor, only, perhaps, a single trigger.