Breaking Point: Europe Is in Revolt Against Lockdown

Protests, riots and civil unrest across the continent. People want their lives back

“And to make matters worse, governments are trying to silence public anger. They are arresting people for daring to protest against the most severe restrictions on our freedom in living memory”

Across Europe, Covid restrictions have changed life beyond recognition. From London to Ljubljana and most places in between, people have been shut up indoors and huge economic, educational and health sacrifices have been made.

But something is starting to stir among the people of Europe. There has been a wave of protests – and, in some cases, riots – across the continent.

In the Netherlands, there is a national lockdown. Pubs, bars and non-essential shops are shut. There is also a 9pm curfew, enforced by fines. Last week, there were several days of rioting against that curfew. Rioters burned cars and pelted police with stones.

These riots helped expose two things: the public’s growing impatience with lockdown rules on the one hand and the arrogance of the ruling elite on the other.

Dutch finance minister Wopke Hoekstra dismissed the mounting anger. ‘It’s scum doing this’, he said. Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb attacked what he called ‘shameless thieves’, asking, ‘Does it make you feel good that you’ve helped ruin your city? To wake up with a bag full of stolen stuff beside you?’

Destruction of people’s businesses is wrong and the looting should be condemned. But the violence points towards growing frustration among the people of Europe.

Discontent is brewing in France, too. Emmanuel Macron appears to have decided against a new national lockdown – for now. But his hand has arguably been forced by the French public, who have been out on the streets in large numbers, protesting against both an authoritarian security bill and any imposition of further Covid restrictions.

Macron’s decision against a new lockdown may have been a reaction to a warning given by ex-interior minister Christophe Castaner. Castaner said recently that a new lockdown could result in significant ‘civil disobedience’. Meanwhile, 24 restaurants in Paris were raided by police last weekend after opening illegally.

Polls suggest that less than 50 per cent of French people support ‘strict confinement measures’, while tens of thousands joined the recent marches against both pandemic rules and the security bill. Popular resistance to restrictions on freedom has become a threat the French government can no longer ignore.

In Brussels, police arrested over 200 people at an anti-lockdown protest at the weekend. ‘We remind you that there is no authorisation to come and demonstrate this Sunday’, tweeted the city police. In the age of Covid, public protest is only permitted with the approval of the state.

In Budapest, protesters gathered to show their objection to Covid rules which they say have wreaked havoc on the hospitality industry. Activists called on restaurants to open in defiance of the law. A protest organiser, Aron Ecsenyi, said, ‘Every tool that we have used until now has been depleted so, beginning now, every business should open in the spirit of civil disobedience’. And in Poland, police raided a nightclub which had opened illegally, using teargas to clear people out.

Meanwhile, the EU’s dismal vaccination programme has dented public confidence in their governments.

But will any of this prompt a rethink in policy? It’s unclear. Protesters in France appear to have made the government pause before imposing a third lockdown. But life is far from normal and civil liberties are still curtailed. Elsewhere, there has been even less progress toward normality.

Is it really any surprise, then, that people are taking to the streets? Across Europe, large numbers of people have reached breaking point. Covid measures have destroyed economies, wrecking livelihoods and thrusting people into poverty. Ordinary people have been ordered to make huge sacrifices, some of which are simply too great to bear.

And to make matters worse, governments are trying to silence public anger. They are arresting people for daring to protest against the most severe restrictions on our freedom in living memory.

Countries that do not tolerate protest cannot fairly call themselves democracies – whether there is a pandemic to deal with or not.

The EU must get its house in order on vaccines. And national governments must come up with clear plans for reopening society in the near future. Otherwise the anger will grow.

Source: Spiked

6 Comments
  1. Vonu says

    Democracies are exactly what can be expected to mute dissidents.
    Unfortunately, the former republic of America has become a democracy, as Thomas Jefferson wrote that it would, saying that “(t)he spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may become persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated that the time for fixing every essential right, on a legal basis, is while our rulers are honest, ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will be heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.”

  2. 7.62x39 says

    “Otherwise the anger will grow.”

    It is lockdowns forever unless public anger grows and grows….

  3. ken says

    But the virus is real! Until the public at large stop believing the government and r e a d the literature online at the CDC and discovering the virus has never been isolated to a single entity,,, a complete genome of the actual alleged virus has not mapped,,,

    the beatings will continue.

    I have read many posts that the poster claimed to have had the virus. How did he know? The doctor told him! How did the doctor know? Because he had a sore throat, fever and body aches,,, same symptoms as a half dozen other diseases. Or a PCR test which CANNOT determine an infection. Unbelievably, the PCR is not even looking for any particular virus much less covid. How can it be looking for covid if no actual genome of the virus is available? How can they tell if it has mutated if they don’t know the original genome? How can they make a vaccine if no genome of the suspected virus is available?

    And why would anyone just accept the word of a doctor? How could a doctor possibly tell the difference between the flu, a cold or the alleged covid when all symptoms are identical? Hospitals and doctors are the third leading cause of deaths in the US. They’re credibility is somewhat in question. Over 250,000 deaths a year from our hero’s!

    It’s been a year now and still no isolated virus other than the pretend virus they had a computer generate. Better get your act together as what is happening now is going to look like a walk in the park a year or two from now.

    Read, Study, Learn…. They hate intelligent and informed individuals.

    1. Andra Saltzberg says

      The bald truth in a nutshell! Ergo…gross gov’t manipulation at the centre of it all.

  4. XSFRGR says

    The vast majority will keep their eyes down, their voices low, and do what they are told. The virus will burn out in time, but the oppression is here to stay. Their power is rooted in the media: STRIKE THE ROOT !!

  5. Jerry Hood says

    Worst of all, the next Karl Schwab plot is economic crisis in 2022, and in 2023, STARVATION, blamed on economic problems, extreme weather and bad harvests, global warming…With hungry and mad crowds, they will instigate DEPOPULATION WAR, planned on 2025…In 2032 ends current Precessional year after 25,793 years, in 5,793 A.M.= Anno Magnus, and in 2033 will be here Novus Ordo Seclorum….As above,so below, in our Dual and Bipolar world….

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