As I noted last week, the G-20 summit in Hamburg was always likely to suffer violent protests.
After all, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s choice of venue was a recipe for chaos. It meant major world leaders gathering in a dense urban environment.
Still, there’s one factor that makes this G-20 so much more vulnerable to protests than others.
The fact that it’s being held in continental Europe.
First off, Europe has a protest culture. Unlike the full-time protesters of the American far-left (who veer between mild disobedience and sporadic violence), the European far-left is decidedly more aggressive in their ambitions. Rooted in the legacy of terrorist groups like the Red Army Faction, which operated in the 1970s and 1980s, European professional protesters do not seek political change as their priority. Instead, they seek the destruction of the existing democratic order as an end in itself. At the sustaining core of their beliefs is a warped-Marxist hatred for capitalism. Hence why, for example, McDonald’s restaurants act as a magnet for violence along protest routes.
Second, there’s the organization of the violent protesters involved. This explains why so many major European protests are heavily influenced by anarchist groups.
These groups, which umbrella themselves under the so-called “black bloc” movement, travel from city to city pursuing mayhem. But while these fanatics are easily identified by their black clothing and face coverings, they are also highly organized. They share information on protest plans and cooperate in logistics. And in recent years, they’ve benefited from the rise of encrypted communications apps like Telegram. While these apps can be hacked by law enforcement, doing so is a complex and time-consuming process. And in Europe, at present, the investigative priority rests on preventing terrorist attacks.
Another issue in the favor of professional protesters is the absence of passport controls at many European borders. This makes it exceptionally difficult for law enforcement authorities to prevent protesters with a penchant for violence from taking their roadshow from country to country. And because travel on the European continent is relatively cheap (if you have your accommodation pre-arranged), it is easy for protesters to get where they need to be.
Fourth, there’s the Trump factor. President Trump is deeply unpopular in Europe. More than that, however, he’s the American president. And that combination makes for a toxic stirring of anti-Americanism. The key here is that anti-Americanism has deep roots on the European far-left. And with Trump coming to Hamburg, it was inevitable that violent protesters would follow. Incidentally, the protesters are lucky that the German authorities have prevented them from approaching Trump. Had they done so, the Secret Service would have acted. Robustly.
Finally, there’s the strategy of European authorities in actually dealing with violent protesters. Unlike in America, protesters in Europe tend not to face criminal sanction for resorting to low-level violence against Police authorities. As long as the protest is controlled, authorities tend to accept some measure of violence. This is a difference in policing and political culture that sets Europe apart from the United States.
Regardless, the ultimate point is simple: The street protests we’re seeing on the streets of Hamburg were to be expected.
This is Europe, after all.
