Europe has fallen, one boarded-up window at a time. These are pictures from Germany, France, Spain, Belgium and Italy.
Two weeks ago, France burned. City halls were set on fire, Hermès and Dior were looted, and more than 900 police officers were injured. This weekend, the wave is spreading. In Berlin, the luxury stores of the Kurfürstendamm are boarding up their windows before Saturday’s protests, with more than 1,500 police officers deployed to protect a single shopping street. In Spain, shops are covering their storefronts.
So here’s a question for every European who still thinks this is normal: when will you realize what’s happening to your own countries? Plywood on the shop windows, metal detectors at Christmas markets, police escorts for football matches, no-go zones that every local knows to avoid, and governments that tell you it’s all just “a few isolated incidents.”
This is how the third world looks from the inside, and we’re getting used to it one weekend at a time.