AssessmentsNov 13, 2020 | 19:22 GMT
Growing COVID-19 Infections in Europe Will Contribute to Greater Social UnrestAs 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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