Europe’s cities are burning again, not from the distant thunder of foreign wars, but from the predictable violence and hatred of left-wing militants and the feeble, moralising elites who enable them.

From Paris to Berlin, masked mobs strike under banners of Free Palestine, anti-fascism, and Marxist utopianism, confident that their violence will be excused as “protest” while the political class hides behind platitudes and press releases. The streets have become a theatre of chaos, and the actors are as dangerous as they are entitled, while those in power — Ursula von der Leyen, Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer — cower behind bureaucratic euphemisms, unwilling to call extremism by its proper name.

Masked Militants and the Myth of “Protest”

Across European cities, a familiar pattern is reasserting itself: violence justified as activism, riots masquerading as protest, and a generation of militants emboldened by decades of indulgent elites.

This resurgence is not new. The continent has long contended with violent leftist factions. In the 1970s, the Red Army Faction in Germany, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, terrorised streets and transport hubs, claiming a moral high ground while murdering police officers, bankers, and politicians. Across the Channel, the Irish Republican Army combined ideological fervour with lethal tactics. Their successors today operate under subtler banners — the glossy “anti-fascist” posters and digital hashtags that seek to sanitise extremism. But beneath the slogans, the impulse remains the same: coercion through violence, intimidation, and chaos.

From Baader-Meinhof to Anti-Fascist Extremists

Modern left-wing militants are adept at signalling virtue while concealing menace. Their focus on causes like Free Palestine has become a convenient cloak, allowing Islamist extremists and others to exploit legitimate grievances while pursuing anarchic ends. Marxist collectives, masquerading as defenders of the downtrodden, now target banks, corporate offices, and occasionally even private residences, staging spectacles intended to provoke fear and attract media attention. The tactics may have evolved, but the core philosophy — disruption in pursuit of utopian ideals — is continuous with that of their historic predecessors.

Useful Idiots in High Places

These movements do not exist in a vacuum. They rely heavily on what Lenin described as “useful idiots” and “fellow travellers”: public figures, journalists, and politicians who unwittingly normalise extremism through naïve sympathy or deliberate complicity. Across Europe, the list of contemporary useful idiots is distressingly familiar. Jeremy Corbyn, even after leaving the UK Labour leadership, has been spotted lending credibility to radical causes on the continent, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon in France parades solidarity with demonstrators who openly condone violence. Both men, cloaked in the rhetoric of social justice, provide a veneer of respectability to behaviours that would be condemned as criminal if committed in any other context.

Corbyn, in particular, exemplifies the corrosive effect of the modern useful idiot. He not only celebrates “grassroots activism” but does so selectively, shielding violent actors from scrutiny while castigating law-abiding authorities. Mélenchon’s public performances in Paris and Marseille similarly blur the line between democratic dissent and disorder, applauding street confrontations while his political machinery remains insulated from accountability. Together, they illustrate a dangerous pattern: prominent figures who amplify disorder while evading its consequences, ensuring that radicals continue to operate in a zone of near-impunity.

The danger is compounded by networks of solidarity that stretch across borders. Irish Republican and Marxist-inspired cells frequently coordinate with ostensibly anti-fascist groups, producing a pan-European web of extremism. Digital platforms and encrypted channels allow them to share tactics, funding sources, and intelligence on law enforcement activity. This trans-nationalisation means that violence is no longer confined to local grievances; it becomes a theatre of ideology, a performance that demands attention and disrupts civic life.

Brussels’ Bureaucratic Cowards

What is most striking, however, is the response — or lack thereof — from Europe’s political and institutional elites. There is a glaring disconnect between the severity of these acts and the rhetoric of accountability. Cities burn, synagogues are defaced, police officers attacked, yet statements from Brussels, Berlin, and Paris are couched in euphemisms: “protesters,” “activists,” “civil disobedience.” Violence is excused as passion, chaos as engagement, criminality as civic participation.

The historical echoes are painful. The Baader-Meinhof Gang and the Red Army Faction thrived precisely because political leaders hesitated to confront them decisively. Britain and Ireland’s decades-long struggles with the IRA were exacerbated by external sympathisers and domestic politicians unwilling to denounce terrorism unequivocally. Today, we see the same pattern: elites paralysed by ideological squeamishness, afraid that naming violence for what it is might offend a constituency more concerned with appearance than security.

Europe’s leaders must summon the courage to call these groups what they are: violent extremists masquerading as activists. To indulge them as “protesters” or “anti-fascists” is to repeat the mistakes of the past. Violence is violence, whatever mask it wears.

Yet the greatest scandal is not on the streets, but in the palaces of power. In Brussels, Ursula von der Leyen issues lofty statements on “social inclusion” while the European Commission turns a blind eye to extremists rampaging in city centres. Politicians mouth platitudes about “dialogue and understanding” as rioters smash shopfronts and target synagogues. Olaf Scholz in Berlin and Emmanuel Macron in Paris offer similarly tepid denunciations, more concerned with optics than outcomes. These are elites who know full well the nature of these movements, yet bite their tongues out of fear of being branded “intolerant” or “reactionary.”

They cling to platitudes while synagogues are defaced, shops are looted, and police officers are battered in the name of social justice. This timidity makes them enablers — midwives of disorder who would rather see their cities burn than risk offending the moral arbiters of Brussels, Berlin, or Paris. History has shown that such indulgence has consequences: the Baader-Meinhof Gang, the IRA, and the Red Army Faction all benefited from political elites too timid to call violence by its true name.

Today, with von der Leyen, Scholz, Macron, Starmer Keir Starmer et al. indulging the rhetoric of “understanding” over decisive action, Europe repeats the same folly. The useful idiots are dangerous, but the cowardly elites who enable them — too afraid to act, too eager to preserve their image — are far worse. If Europe does not awaken from this moral slumber, it risks more than riots; it risks a descent into chaos, with a generation of extremists emboldened by the very leaders who should be holding them to account.

Main Image: rajatonvimma /// VJ Group Random Doctors – Stop the genocide, Free Palestine 023 Mielenosoitus palestiinalaisten tueksi