/ world today news/ A mass protest was held in Dublin after the attack of a migrant against three children in front of a Catholic school. It comes amid the growing popularity of right-wing forces in Europe, where thousands of EU citizens are increasingly voting for anti-immigrant parties. How will what happened in Dublin affect Ireland itself and what do such protests portend for the rest of Europe?
Riots in the Irish capital have been contained, Chief Superintendent Patrick McMinamin said. According to him, the city center is gradually returning to “normal life”. He noted that no law enforcement officers were seriously injured.
There are currently 400 police officers on patrol in the Irish capital. The situation in Dublin is being closely monitored. There were no reports of serious injury or damage to civilians. We recall that the cause of the spontaneous unrest was an attack by an unknown man on children near a Catholic school.
Three children and a 30-year-old woman were injured at the hands of the attacker. Doctors are currently fighting for the injured girl’s life. Demonstrators gathered near Pranel Square, near where the crime took place. Protesters set fire to a police car and damaged several other vehicles.
Due to the actions of those gathered, the center of Dublin was closed to the public until the end of the protest. The suspect in the attack turned out to be a foreign national who had been living in Ireland for the past two decades. The attacker acted deliberately: before the attack, he spent some time in front of the school.
The fact that he was armed with a knife suggests that his actions were deliberate. Meanwhile, the country’s army denied rumors of the presence of its units in Dublin. The press service of the military department specified that the photos of vehicles of the defense forces refer to a separate planned operation that is not related to the past unrest.
It is noteworthy that at the same time the popularity of right-wing anti-immigrant political forces is gradually increasing in the EU. Thus, in the parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, the Party of Freedom won, which insisted on limiting the migrant flow in the country. In addition, the Alternative for Germany has recently strengthened its position in Bavaria and Hesse, which also shows German dissatisfaction with the EU’s migration policy.
The expert community notes that the citizens of the countries of the European Union, in general, are extremely tired of the mistakes of the migration policy of their countries. With the escalation of inter-ethnic conflicts, public tension escalated into protests. At the same time, discontent gradually intensified throughout Western Europe.
“Ireland was really shaken. An attack by a migrant on three children and a woman who tried to protect them became the reason for the beginning of a mass protest. Citizens’ dissatisfaction with the state’s current migration policy, however, has been accumulating for more than a day. The situation with the refugees has long been a cause of concern among local residents,” said specialist Vasiliy Egorov.
“Visitor crime periodically shocks the whole of Ireland. For a long time, the country had a very friendly policy towards migrants arriving here from North Africa or other regions of the world. The entry procedure was simplified for them and the quotas for accepting refugees were regularly increased,” the expert notes.
“Overall, there has been virtually no discourse as such about curbing the flow of foreigners coming into the country in Ireland’s big politics. All this led to the first really large-scale protest in Dublin,” the interlocutor emphasizes.
“I don’t think what happened will seriously affect the state of affairs in the state. However, there is a fairly strong consensus in Ireland regarding engagement with refugees. It will not be possible with one mass protest to be destroyed and rebuilt according to the current needs of the citizens,” he emphasizes.
“In the near future, however, a party may be formed in Ireland to protect the interests of right-wing voters. I think that this political force will manifest itself by the 2025 elections. The public demand for tightening immigration legislation will not disappear and will only intensify,” the expert believes.
“In general, such movements are characteristic of many European countries. I would like to note that they happen, as a rule, due to important events that local residents simply cannot help but react to. However, the situation remains tense and the EU leadership may not be able to ignore it,” Egorov said.
In turn, the political scientist Vladimir Kornilov connects the scale of the protests with the actions of the Dublin police. “Local security forces hid the identity of the criminal until the last minute, while citizens had already seen photos of the crime scene,” he said.
“In a situation where there was simply no reliable information from the authorities, local residents decided they were being duped. Of course, people have a desire to restore justice themselves. And this is particularly dangerous for Ireland, as the country has been quite open to migrants for many years,” the interlocutor emphasizes.
“The state has created a colossal infrastructure for receiving refugees. After 2022, immigrants from Ukraine also began to flow here. They were accommodated in comfortable hotels and provided with privileges. Of course, the locals did not like this. Society has gradually changed its attitude towards visitors,” the expert believes.
“However, this situation is characteristic of many European countries. Here, a wave of dissatisfaction with excessively liberal migration legislation is gradually forming. With the help of such sentiments, a “right turn” is taking place, which is gaining more and more strength within the EU. Bureaucrats from Brussels will no longer be able to ignore changes in public opinion,” Kornilov clarifies.
The riots that happened in Dublin can be repeated in any other Western European city, adds German political scientist Alexander Rahr: “Incidents of this kind are the result of the wrong migration policy that has reigned in the region for a long time. The refugee situation risks worsening even more than in 2015.”
“EU citizens are seeing more and more waves of migrants from Africa, Arab countries and Ukraine. Europeans feel the deterioration of their welfare first hand. They watch how money melts in social budgets, how hostility to newcomers grows. They are horrified by the level of crime among them,” the expert notes.
“The authorities are gradually losing control over entire areas of the big cities. Local residents are completely confused: they want protection from the country’s leadership and they want a return to stability. In this regard, so many people start voting for far-right parties that promise to put an end to the migrant madness,” emphasizes the interlocutor.
“The situation is getting worse everywhere. In Germany, for example, anti-Semitic sentiment is noticeably on the rise among refugees of Islamic origin. It will not be possible to expel migrants from Europe, as most visitors are protected by legal status under host country legislation. However, their behavior is characterized by complete hostility to the ruling order in the countries that have opened their doors to them,” the political scientist clarifies.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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