Key Takeaways
Europe’s unrest has material causes, but political responses can perpetuate the grievances they are intended to resolve. Government is part of these relationships, not an external observer.
Opposing political positions can become mutually sustaining. Advertising-funded platforms can amplify antagonism, while recurring attention creates commercial value. These mechanisms can reinforce political identities and incentives without making opposing positions morally equivalent.
The objective is not to eliminate disagreement, but to address its material causes while changing the conditions that reward escalation. Democratic stability requires ways of sustaining political differences without continually reproducing destructive conflict.
Governments confronting Europe’s unrest are already participating in the relationships producing it. Every announcement, delay and refusal changes what people expect from the next encounter. French students have protested deteriorating school conditions and staffing shortages, while Belgian workers have struck against planned budget cuts (Reuters, 2026a; 2026b). These grievances are material, but their political significance develops through repeated encounters. An unanswered complaint becomes evidence of indifference. Reassurance unsupported by delivery weakens the next reassurance. Government cannot stand outside this process to correct it. Its decisions, language and omissions become part of the circumstances through which dissatisfaction persists. The question is not simply whether grievances are justified, but how their causes, consequences and anticipated responses become organised into recurring political conflict.
Opposing political positions can become mutually sustaining. Each confrontation supplies differences through which the other side renews its identity, authority and urgency. This does not make opposing positions morally equivalent or their grievances equally justified. It describes how antagonism can become part of the continuing organisation of political identities, even when its consequences damage everyone involved. Advertising-funded platforms introduce another mechanism of reproduction. Advertising supplied approximately 98% of Meta’s 2025 revenue (Meta Platforms, 2026). Research examining Twitter’s engagement-based ranking found that it amplified politically hostile material relative to chronological selection (Milli et al., 2025). This establishes a mechanism through which platform design can favour antagonism, not that hostility necessarily increases advertising revenue or that every platform operates identically. Nevertheless, recurring attention has commercial value, and systems designed to sustain engagement can reinforce the circulation of conflict. The resulting organisation requires neither conspiracy nor a coherent political objective. Its incentives can persist independently of anyone intending the wider consequences.
Regulation must address these relationships without reproducing the antagonism it seeks to contain. The EU’s Digital Services Act establishes obligations concerning systemic risks, independent audits, researcher access and recommendation options that do not depend upon profiling (European Commission, 2026). These mechanisms provide opportunities to examine how recommendation systems, advertising and political communication influence recurring escalation. Comparative testing should establish whether interventions reduce harmful amplification, whether the same activity reappears elsewhere, and what consequences follow for legitimate participation. Public scrutiny, independent evidence and appeal mechanisms are essential because governments participate in the political relationships they regulate. Oversight can itself become another instrument of political competition unless its assumptions, consequences and institutional interests remain open to examination. The objective is not to suppress disagreement, but to change the conditions under which hostility becomes advantageous.
Material grievances require an equally consequential response. Governments must establish a credible rhythm between immediate recognition and slower delivery. France’s pledge to deploy approximately 3,000 qualified teachers provides a practical test: whether staff reach schools, which shortages remain, and whether subsequent decisions respond to what students and teachers actually experience (Reuters, 2026a). Announcements are not outcomes. Their significance emerges through delivery, verification and the expectations they establish for what happens next. Governments should identify responsibility, publish milestones and preserve opportunities for independent scrutiny and revision. Yet restoring confidence in existing institutions is insufficient if their ordinary operation continues to reproduce the original grievances. Democratic stability depends upon organising differences so that disagreement remains productive without requiring recurring hostility to sustain political identity. Europe does not need to eliminate conflict. It needs to stop making the reproduction of conflict one of the most reliable ways to acquire political authority, commercial value and public attention.
References
European Commission (2026) ‘DSA: Very large online platforms and search engines’. Available at: European Commission.
Meta Platforms (2026) Annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. Available at: SEC filing.
Milli, S., Carroll, M., Wang, Y., Pandey, S., Zhao, S. and Dragan, A.D. (2025) ‘Engagement, user satisfaction, and the amplification of divisive content on social media’, PNAS Nexus, 4(3), pgaf062. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf062.
Reuters (2026a) ‘French student protesters vow to keep up their fight after scoring first win’, 9 October. Available at: Reuters via Investing.com.
Reuters (2026b) ‘Belgium strike partly shuts public sector as budget deal delayed’, 12 October. Available at: Reuters via MarketScreener.
