Could Europe be facing its own version of the so-called Arab Spring? That era of uprisings and rebellions started with the despair — and suicide by fire — of a single Tunisian street vendor. It tore  through the political fabric of much of the Middle East. In Europe today, disaffection with leaders seen as detached from the realities of migrant crime is roiling politics across the Continent. 

Immigration, of course, isn’t the only issue. The spiraling cost of living — inflation and currency debasement — is among the issues that are contributing to the turmoil on the continent. In such an overheated climate as this, in any event, it would take only one incident to send people into the streets clamoring for common-sense change.

Recent events in three European powers — Germany, Great Britain, and France — are as clear a demonstration as any that the public’s tolerance for business as usual is fast diminishing. 

The memory of this summer’s riots across a wide swath of the British Isles is still fresh. Those were triggered by a “mass stabbing” attack in northwest England in late July that left three girls dead. 

The government’s inability to resolve the migrant crisis was not the direct cause of the turmoil that gripped Britain in late July and part of August, but there is little doubt it played a part. As a candidate for prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer pledged to crack down on the human traffickers who pack small boats with migrants and send them from the French coast across the English Channel.

He has yet to follow through on that campaign promise. On Tuesday,  a small boat packed with refugees was rent in the English Channel as its passengers attempted to reach Britain from northern France, plunging dozens into the water and leaving at least 12 dead. Rescuers plucked 65 people from the brine. 

In February the former Tory Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, stated that 1.4 million people were granted visas in Britain in 2023 and that this year asylum approvals are at a record high. “This cannot go on: we don’t have enough homes, GPs or schools to support this level” she stated. 

It  is still going on though, and the prospect of easy entry into the British social services is what fuels the quest for more refugees to make the dangerous Channel crossing. As a measure of just how serious this is getting, the day after Tuesday’s tragedy at sea, another overcrowded boat set off for the English coast from France. 

The AP reported that “French patrol boats watched it labor through the seas.” The mayor of the northern French town whence it departed, Wimereux, stated that “Every day is like this for us. Why do they want to go to Britain? Because something is drawing them there,” adding, “They can ask for asylum in France. (But) they all want to go to Britain.”

If Prime Minister Starmer can’t navigate his way out of this predicament, he’s not alone. President Macron doesn’t seem to be able to figure it out either. The French president has plunged France into a state of near-paralysis, with the country having no prime minister for nearly two months.  

The reason for this starts with Mr. Macron himself.  In an attempt to thwart the rise of the center-right National Rally, which performed above expectations in EU parliamentary elections, he dissolved the French parliament in June, and Paris has been floundering on all fronts ever since.  

The chaos obscures  the genesis of the crisis: Mr. Macron’s unwillingness to internalize the reasons for the surge in support for Marine Le Pen and the new head of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella. Add to that a frustration with his government’s failed neoliberal policies, particularly as they pertain to immigration.

In France as in other countries, the situation of national frustration is one incident away from blowing up into something bigger. 

It almost happened last month when a French gendarme was killed near Cannes by a hit-and-run driver from Cape Verde. The suspect has a criminal record with multiple traffic violations and physical threats to individuals. 

The gendarme’s widow, Harmonie Comyn, caused a national sensation when during a televised tribute to the fallen officer she said, “France killed my husband through its inadequacy, its laxity, and its excess of ‘tolerance.’” 

“Why is this repeat offender allowed to move around freely? When will our legislators truly open their eyes?”  Ms. Comyn thundered, in remarks that rippled across the social media landscape. 

In a post on social media platform X, Mr. Macron said only that the officer  was “run down by a criminal” — he stopped short of using the word foreigner. That is the kind of evasiveness that leaves the many detractors of the Napoleon-loving Frenchman fuming.

In Germany, Chancellor Scholz too is walking on thin ice. The startling success of the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland in Saxony and Thuringia in elections on Sunday did not spring from nowhere. 

Ahead of the votes there a deadly knife attack committed by a Syrian refugee raised hackles across the country. Mr. Scholz’s new line is that foreign criminals will be deported, but for many that isn’t much of an action plan. It  hasn’t stopped pundits from claiming that the chancellor is living in a “Berlin bubble.”

That bubble is starting to burst. This week saw another fatal knife attack — it happened in Lower Saxony. Die Welt reported that the suspected perpetrator is a 35-year-old asylum seeker from Iraq. The victim was the 61-year-old manager of the “asylum hotel” where the suspect has been staying — courtesy of the German state.