Turmoil in Europe

[Vicus]

European regimes renew their attacks on free speech




Ryan McMaken
Mises Institute
Tue, 20 Oct 2026

In recent weeks, German and French politicians have denounced free speech, and especially the concept of "freedom of speech" as long envisioned in the libertarian tradition of natural rights. French President Emmanuel Macron on September 29 stated that "The so-called American 'free speech' today, which some people have promoted, is the opposite of free speech." Macron compared speaking freely as comparable to walking down the street assaulting other people.

A week earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared, "Don't anyone come to me with free speech!" He asserted "we must still be able to protect citizens from false information."

Both were speaking on issues related to online speech through social media and similar platforms. Both see a grave danger to the ruling class posed by the ability of unvetted or anonymous users to post opinions freely.

In both cases, these attacks on freedom have been in the context of European regimes' repeated efforts to impose new regulations on social media platforms to limit speech.

This has been going on for several years. For example, back in February, Macron stated that "free speech is pure bull****."

In Europe, the anonymity issue is no minor affair. In Germany, there are literal speech police who will arrest ordinary citizens merely for saying things online or reposting memes. It's easy to see why anonymity could be an essential tool in posting ideas and facts the regime doesn't like.

A European regime insisting on abolishing online anonymity is essentially tantamount to announcing that these regimes want the ability to make more arrests for wrongspeech. This is a growing problem across Europe, and a 2025 study concluded that British police were making 30 arrests per day for non-violent "offensive online messages." Under British law, one can be prosecuted for hurting someone else's feelings. That's not how British apologists describe it, of course, but that is the essential reality.

Euphemisms for Censorship

Whether we're talking about France, the UK, or Germany — all places where the despotic enemies of free expression have seemingly free rein — the regimes' forces do not, of course, come right out and say that they support censorship.

They couch their censorship in the soft language of Leftwing ideology. The claim is that speech must be regulated in order to combat "hate speech" or to reflect the "common good" or to combat "disinformation."

To wit, in recent years, European politicians have insisted that speech be made to fit into "a common framework" — to use Macron's phrasing — and to be subject to some standard determining what is "false information."

But here is the rub: Who is to determine what falls within this common framework? Who is to determine what constitutes "false information"? It is the ruling oligarchy and its political allies, of course, that will determine if some proposed fact or idea is to be allowed to be spoken freely.

continue: https://www.sott.net/article/509033-...on-free-speech

[Vicus]

The fall of Europe and its geostrategic implications



One of the consequences of political instability in France has that it revealed the fracturing of Western alliances as President Trump and President Macron swapped insults and blame for the riots gripping France. The consensus seems to be that the riots, which have spread to many other European countries, will continue and escalate.

In fact, it seems that the French government is caught in something of a perfect storm surging both from the bottom-up and from the top-down: while the struggling French people are increasingly restless and ready to pour into the streets and protest, global capital markets have been exerting pressure on France’s dismal finances. Just in the past ten months, the interest rate on French government bonds soared by nearly 40%.



Incidentally, that chart became obsolete in the space of about one day. By now, interest rate on the 10-year French government bonds rose to 4.935%. But unlike in the United States, French stocks went nowhere and may have entered into a bear market. With both bond prices and stock prices collapsing, the value of collateral in the banking system is melting away in a self-stoking cycle and no end in sight.

In France, government spending represents nearly 57% of the GDP. One Michael Aarouet put together a handy comparison of French state’s share of the GDP with that of other capitalist liberal democracies:



The system is drowning in debt…

At €3.6 trillion, France’s public debt is just short of 120% of the GDP. By now, all these trillions in debt and also the GDP percentages above, mostly just elicit yawns because it’s all become so new normal. But if we calculate public debt on a per capita basis, things look a bit more serious: €3.6 trillion represents about €52,000 per man, woman and child living in France today. With the government running annual fiscal deficits of up to 5.8%, this debt load is 100% certain to continue inflating, suffocating French economy and further stoking social pressures.

No, it’s not about “socialism.” It’s deeper than that!

And for anyone about to yell, “socialism” about now, we have to understand that the problem does not originate with profligate “socialist” governments, nor can we solve it by voting in capitalist, conservative, pro-small government officials. The problem is entirely systemic and the system is demonstrably immune to the intended or desired policies of elected officials and even more so to the will of their voters.

Even if they passionately advocated balancing budgets, paying down debts and reducing government footprint in the economy, once they’re in office, public officials will continue down the same path of deficit spending. I elaborated this in August in the article titled, “Why governments can NEVER give up deficit spending.” There will be no voting our way out of those problems. The article is linked belw:

The geostrategic consequences

There can be little doubt that the festering, escalating financial crisis will have very substantial geostrategic consequences. At some point, the Unity of the combined West, centered on our “shared values” will begin to disintegrate and individual nations will move to mitigate the crisis at home, regardless of how this could impact their allies by shared values.

In fact, we are well past that point; the perfect example is President Trump’s recent “Diesel Deal” with Russia’s President Putin. That deal is also an example of the United States’ capability to manage the crisis and and engineer a soft(er) landing for itself by managing its fiscal crisis. Other examples include the American leverage over other nations in the Western hemisphere, which are being turned, one by one, into colonial outposts of Wall Street banks.

Regardless of the ethical ramifications of those arrangements, it is securing new collateral as well as future demand for US dollars for the bankers who issue it. That will mitigate US financial crisis, at least marginally. Manwhile, the Europeans are well and thoroughly stuck. In only a few years, they’ve managed to largely destroy, not only their industrial base and energy production, but also their relationships with Russia, China, Iran, Arab nations, much of the Global South, and the United States.

The only front where they still have considerable leverage is against their own people where regulation, censorship and repression are growing worse with each passing day, so we get demonstrations and riots. At the same time, they are trying hard to convince the white, Christian part of that population, that doing their “duty” and sacrificing themselves and their children in a war against Russia is right and necessary in order for us to protect our countries and our way of life.

Desperate for war


continue: https://alexkrainer.substack.com/p/t...s-geostrategic

[bojancan]

It is soooo so sad.... very terrible, where have we come these moments we are living now..
It does not matter... ours, yours, Germans, Hungarians, blacks, whites, reds,... in my opinion, we all lost our moral compass and values.... specially those in politics!
Watching the streets and seeing such savage.... reckless behaviours completely devoid of any sense of shame.... it is truly terrifying...
This is happening despite the owners’ pleas for them to stop and not commit such of acts. In one of the scenes, where a young kid looking wide eyed at the shop owner... suddenly dashes into the store and joins the robbery.. it is absolutely appalling!!!!!

I love to listen to Richard Wolff here and there... here on Danny H channel...

Oct, 23
Danny Haiphong
687K subscribers
Richard Wolff: Europe Collapsing, Iran UNRAVELS the US Empire – Trump in DENIAL

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3ybuifnTYrw

Economic Richard Wolff discusses the collapsing European and American-led world order, first breaking down devastating new data on the Euro-zone's economic catastrophe and then diving deep into the oil war with Iran that is cracking the US empire into a decline that not even Trump can deny.

[Vicus]

High debt, tight budgets and long-standing structural problems leave few quick or easy solutions.


Protests in Paris, Oct. 2026

Recent protests across Europe have brought social and economic strains into sharper focus, reflecting concerns that extend beyond prices to housing, incomes, public services and economic security. Governments face growing pressure to respond, but high debt, tight budgets and long-standing structural problems leave few quick or easy solutions.

In France, protests that began with students demanding better school conditions and more teaching staff broadened into nationwide demonstrations over rising living costs and wider social grievances.

Violence soon erupted on the sidelines of some rallies, with clashes, looting and arson reported in several cities. The historic city hall in Limoges was largely destroyed by fire.

In Spain, more than 50 protests took place in Madrid and dozens of other Spanish cities on Oct. 3, demanding action on soaring rents, evictions and housing affordability after the government failed to pass emergency housing legislation.

Elsewhere, protests in Italy and Belgium have reflected a broader mix of concerns over wages, prices, public services and fiscal tightening. In Milan, hundreds of black-clad demonstrators besieged Piazza del Duomo on Saturday, throwing firecrackers and bottles at police. At least four officers and 20 protesters were injured, while about 50 demonstrators were detained, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

Gen Z is leading protests across the world after a global lurch to the right.

Neoliberal governments have gutted publicly funded services, while many young people fear entering a barren job market and a future overshadowed by instability.

ECONOMIC SECURITY UNDER STRAIN

STRUGGLE TO BALANCE FISCAL, SOCIAL NEEDS

continue: https://www.telesurenglish.net/cost-...across-europe/

[Vicus]

Students Across Germany Rally Against Merz Austerity and Military Service


The protest day unfolded mostly peacefully and without major incidents in cities such as Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Mainz, Munich, Nuremberg, Erfurt, Magdeburg, Dresden, Leipzig and Cologne, but incidents were reported in some places at the end of the day. Photo: EFE.

More than 180,000 students protested across more than 30 German cities on Saturday against the Government’s social spending cuts and plans to reactivate compulsory military service, in a national mobilization convened by the Gen Z Regelt platform.

In Berlin, thousands gathered in front of the Brandenburg Gate, where the capital’s police reported a maximum attendance of 5,000 people at the peak of the event. Protesters carried banners directed at the national Administration, including “Chancellor Merz must leave,” “Your austerity policy is costing our future,” “No to cuts and war budgets,” “Let’s support education,” “Let’s invest in people, not in war,” “Listen to Generation Z” and “Berlin saves, the rich laugh.”

Representatives of university and school student groups directly questioned Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s management, criticizing his proposals to reform the health and pension systems, as well as his handling of the climate crisis. They rejected the entry into force of legislation imposing mandatory medical examinations for military service, which they consider the previous step toward reimplementing forced recruitment.

Germany: Clashes broke out at the end of a youth protest in Hamburg when masked participants built and set fire to barricades and threw firecrackers and stones at police, who responded with pepper spray and water cannons.


The march was part of the nationwide “Gen Z regelt”…
— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 31, 2026

After the protest ended, violent incidents were reported. In Cologne, police ordered the march to be suspended because some participants had their faces covered and because of the use of pyrotechnics, which also forced the use of water cannons. Clashes were also reported in Frankfurt.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/stude...itary-service/