Europe's Law-and-Order Syndrome

NOT since the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler rallied the German people with his guttural call for Ruhe und Ordnung, has Western Europe been so preoccupied with the problem of law and order. This fact is curious in itself, since Europe is suffering from none of the specific agonies that are presently afflicting the U.S. There is no angry debate over Viet Nam to polarize European populations, no comparable student concern with the draft, no race problem of remotely similar scope.

Yet Europe, like the U.S., is in the throes of a "second industrial revolution" that has led to an increasingly technological and depersonalized society. Students have balked at the overcrowded, understaffed, bureaucratic quality of university life. For a time they were joined in France by blue-collar workers seeking higher wages. Students and workers are still demonstrating regularly all over the Continent, but not together: their short-lived alliance is dead. As in the U.S., worker resentment of long-haired, privileged students has often led to clashes between the two groups. In fact, the U.S. example may have had much to do with the rise of the law-and-order phenomenon in Europe--just as it did with the contagious spread of discontent and violence.

Amnesty Bill. Oddly enough, the European nations least affected seem to be the ones with recent totalitarian pasts --Germany and Italy. Last fall the West Germans elected a Socialist government and gave a mere 4.3% of the vote to the right-wing National Democratic Party, which advocated "security through law and order." Franz-Josef Strauss, a leader of the opposition Christian Democrats, has delighted audiences in his native Bavaria by attacking the "animal students," and he has been heard to observe that European politicians have a lot to learn from Spiro Agnew. But outside conservative Bavaria, Strauss's approach has met with little success. Another measure of the country's relaxed approach to the issue is the fact that West Germany's Bundesrat only lasl week gave final approval to a new law aimed at preventing the police from restricting demonstrations. The law prohibits random arrests of people merely for being present at a violent demonstration; only those directly involved in violent actions will be subject to imprisonment.

In Italy, despite a certain nostalgia for the days of Benito Mussolini (TIME, May 4), few would exchange the dishevelment of parliamentary democracy for the discipline of the Fascist era. Instead of advocating repressive new laws during Italy's current period of unrest, Premier Mariano Rumor's government is preparing an amnesty bill that will permit the dropping of charges against hundreds of demonstrators arrested in recent months. "We accept controversy," said Rumor, "but we will not permit democracy itself to be attacked."

Alarm over disorders is growing, however, in many other countries throughout Europe. Greece's colonels rarely deliver a speech without invoking law and order, along with religion and patriotism, as the totems of their repressive regime. In The Netherlands, which is a traditionally tolerant country, patience of the Dutch has been worn thin by the calculatedly outrageous antics of the "provos" (short for provokers) in recent years. During the national Liberation Day celebration two weeks ago, 140 provos and other student activists were arrested. Even in relatively placid Switzerland, police fought students outside the Spanish consulate in Zurich recently in a rare outbreak of street violence.

Model of Stability. The issue has had its greatest impact in Britain and France. In Britain, demonstrations and disorders are far rarer and milder than in the U.S. But violent crime has risen 7% in each of the last two years, and law and order consequently promises to be a major issue in the coming election campaign. In an attack on the Labor government, Conservative Member of Parliament Quintin Hogg recently accused Prime Minister Harold Wilson of "presiding complacently over the biggest crime wave of the century." Another Tory M.P., Sir Peter Rawlinson, promised that if the Tories gain power, "we shall recommend much heavier fines for trespassing students," and possibly imprisonment as well. Though Wilson replied by noting, "We are still an example of stability to the world," a Louis Harris poll showed that 77% of the electorate considered law and order an important election issue. Another survey indicated that 50% thought demonstrations should be allowed only if they were "more strictly controlled," and 32% thought they should be banned altogether.

British police already have the discretionary power to stop and search anyone they think might be carrying drugs--which, by and large, means the long-haired young and even the not-so-young. Photographer David Bailey, 32, whose hair stretches almost to his shoulders, complains that he was recently held by London police for an hour before he was able to convince them who he was. "They couldn't believe anyone looking as I do could possibly afford a decent camera," said Bailey.

Curbing the Casseurs. Nowhere in Europe has law and order become as heated an issue as in France, where student disorders have been less widespread than in the U.S. but have turned to violence on several occasions. Last month, after a particularly ugly student demonstration at the Nanterre branch of the University of Paris, Premier Jacques Chaban-Delmas commented: "The wreckers must pay." The following day the Cabinet approved a draft bill for what Justice Minister Rene Pleven called the control of "certain new forms of delinquency."

The bill was quickly dubbed La Loi Anticasseura (the anti-wreckers law) after the Premier's remark. Its most controversial feature was its concept of "collective responsibility," which gives police the right to arrest anybody in the vicinity of an illegal demonstration, whether he appears to be demonstrating or not. A mere tourist watching a disturbance from what he considers a safe distance could thus be hauled off to jail along with the rioters. Those convicted are subject to prison terms of three months to five years, and are liable for property damage caused by the rioting. To make it easier for judges to determine damages, the Paris police have obligingly published a price list of their equipment--$1 for a nightstick, $135 for a complete uniform.

The bill has been supported by many working-class Frenchmen, whose longstanding resentment of students has been intensified by recent rioting. But it was strongly attacked by jurists and politicians ranging from leftists to some Gaullists. Labor leaders were particularly worried that the law might be applied to nonstudent demonstrations. Some critics noted that a peaceful demonstration could become violent almost by accident--or because its sponsors' enemies caused provocation. Le Monde said the law could lead to a "real French version of Z," the current film that deals with political repression in Greece. When President Georges Pompidou told a gathering that "the authority of the state is the best guarantee of the citizen's liberty," the left-wing daily Combat was outraged. In a play on the name of Greece's Premier George Papadopoulos, the newspaper headlined its story POMPIDOUPOULOS.

Explosive Weekend. Before the National Assembly overwhelmingly approved the bill three weeks ago, its opponents managed to water it down slightly. The new version retains the principle of collective guilt, but only those who "consciously remain" at the site of a demonstration after violence begins can be held as "wreckers."

When the bill goes before the French Senate this week, it is likely to be approved without any serious opposition. Its chances were strengthened by a recent wave of violence that has been generally attributed to Maoists, albeit without much real proof; over a single weekend, there were 25 bombing and arson incidents throughout France, not to mention the looting of Paris' super-gourmet shop, Fauchon (see THE NATION), by Maoist students. Said the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine last week in a front-page headline summing up that explosive weekend: LA

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