Political Disorder in Europe: 10 Cases From ACLED’s New Expansion

Major protests have broken out in France over reforms implemented by successive governments in various sectors, including changes to pension schemes as well as changes to labor laws. In 2017, arriving amid economic stagnation, President Emmanuel Macron abolished the wealth tax, increased gas taxes, and carried out pension reforms. On 17 November 2018, protesters distrustful of politicians and frustrated by the rising cost of living took their grievances to the streets, calling themselves the Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaunes) after the high-visibility safety vests they wear. They organized without the aid of unions or other organized political groups, adopting a decentralized structure that allows anyone to join by simply putting on a yellow vest, which many motorists already own. The movement, rooted in an anti-elite ideology opposed to growing inequalities, spread quickly due to its leaderless organization.

Far-right activity is on the rise in Germany. On 19 February 2020, a far-right extremist carried out shootings in two shisha bars in Hanau, leaving nine people — most of them migrants — dead (The Guardian, 20 February 2020). Although the gunman was a lone actor, multiple far-right chat groups involving German police forces and security agencies have been discovered since the attack.

ACLED recorded over 135 demonstration events in Northern Ireland during 2020. Early in the year, demonstration activity spiked due to tensions over the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union as well as bouts of university and public sector strikes. However, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March led to significant restrictions on public gatherings, resulting in a dramatic reduction in the number of demonstrations, as well as mob violence, typically associated with Northern Ireland’s parading/marching season.³

On 22 October 2020, the Constitutional Court in Poland ruled that abortions are unconstitutional. Based on this ruling, the government announced its decision to further limit already strict abortion restrictions, only allowing abortions to be carried out in situations where the mother’s life is in danger or where the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape. The decision would prohibit abortions in cases where the fetus is physically disabled. These issues of women’s rights and government intervention, however, are only the tip of the iceberg of a much deeper divide within Polish society.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the number of public demonstrations in support of the Catalan independence movement has remained high in Spain since the beginning of 2020. Civil society actors continue to organize protests to demand Catalonia’s independence and to call for Catalan leaders to be released from prison. Demonstrations in the Basque region have also continued, though with less frequency. These latter demonstrations center on demands to transfer imprisoned former members of the Basque Homeland and Liberty (ETA) group to prisons in the Basque region, suggesting that the reconciliation process in the Basque conflict has not yet been fully realized.

In 2020, demonstrations accounted for the vast majority of disorder in Italy, most of which can be linked to the coronavirus pandemic. By early March 2020, Italy recorded the second-highest number of coronavirus cases after China (BBC, 9 March 2020), prompting the government and regional authorities to deploy a variety of restrictions at different points throughout 2020. These measures rippled through detention facilities, fueling a series of violent demonstrations and mob violence events, in addition to peaceful protests.

In June 2020, demonstrations associated with the Black Lives Matter movement spread from the United States to Portugal. Later that summer, anti-racism demonstrations surged after the racially motivated murder of Bruno Candé Marques, a Portuguese actor of Guinean origin. These demonstrations were followed by several counter-protests organized by Enough (Chega), a far-right political party, and other far-right political groups, such as National Resistance (NR), which deny the existence of systemic racism in the country. There is a large Afro-descendant population in Portugal which, along with the Roma population, has been the target of hate crimes and institutional racism in past years (OHCHR, November 2016).

Climate change is an especially salient issue in Sweden, as illustrated by the persistence and geographic breadth of climate-related protests across the country in 2020. The youth-led Fridays for Future (FFF), as well as the more radical Extinction Rebellion (XR), have remained the two most prominent activist movements in the country. FFF is an international social movement of students and environmental activists that emerged in 2018. It was initiated by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg with the aim to demand action against climate change from political and economic leaders (Atlas of the Future, 11 December 2019).

When the Theater and Film Arts University (SzFE) was forcibly privatized in 2020, it sparked the first prolonged protest movement against the Hungarian government’s attempts to control academia. The effort, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the right-wing Fidesz Party, to expand the government’s authority over the academic sphere is likely to further erode popular support for the increasingly illiberal regime. The government appears to have been caught off guard by the significant opposition mounted by the theater and film students, faculty, and staff.

Climate change policy has become an increasingly polarized issue in the Netherlands. In an effort to reduce its carbon emission footprint, the Netherlands has introduced a series of reforms affecting the agricultural sector. Farmer-led groups like the Farmers Defence Force have organized in opposition to the new policies since 2019. Meanwhile, environmental groups like Extinction Rebellion (XR) and Fridays for Future (FFF) have become more active in their push towards further policy changes addressing climate change and sustainability, thus increasing polarization in the Netherlands around climate change policy.