ASSESSMENTS

Growing COVID-19 Infections in Europe Will Contribute to Greater Social Unrest

Nov 13, 2020 | 19:22 GMT

Demonstrators participate in a "March for Freedom" protest in London, the United Kingdom, on Oct. 17, 2020.

(Hollie Adams/Getty Images)

Highlights

Social unrest appears to be on the rise across Europe as governments introduce more restrictions on social gatherings to address rising COVID-19 cases.
The coming winter is likely to contribute to sustained high levels of COVID-19 cases that strain national health care systems, requiring governments to leave current restrictions in place or even to expand them.
Prolonged or expanded restrictions will create more grievances, potentially causing existing protest movements to grow.
Organizations in Europe should anticipate more social unrest throughout the winter, with threats of looting and other forms of property damage targeting properties in central business districts and thoroughfares.

As countries across Europe introduce tighter restrictions in response to increasing COVID-19 cases and deaths, social unrest and protests against the measures are increasing, too. This is not the first time we've seen violent protests in response to European COVID-19 policies, but this time around they have been more intense and widespread. Throughout the summer and early fall, periodic protest activity in major European cities led to arrests or clashes with police. In May, Paris police arrested protesters in the central Place de Republique while London's Metropolitan police clashed with protesters in Trafalgar Square in September. The hardships caused by COVID-19 and the associated restrictions, as well as sympathetic Black Lives Matter protests in early summer, led to elevated protest activity across Europe this year. At no other point this year, however, has protest activity been so intense across such a broad swath of the Continent over such a short...

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