EURO 16 battlefield
June 14th, 2016Commentators are baffled by the spectacle of violence surrounding the first days of the European Football Championship.
In its front page editorial, Népszabadság remarks that the horrendous scenes in Marseille show a European man not entirely different from the image of the Islamist terrorists we have got to know from our TV screens. “This is also terrorism”, Népszabadság warns, but „home-grown”. White Christian males feel for some reason that they have to smash the opposing camp. The ingredients are alcohol, a gang mentality and hatred. “Football is on the defensive”, the authors conclude.
In his Magyar Nemzet editorial, Csaba Lukács blames the French authorities for what happened. They were clearly exclusively prepared to face Islamist terror, and neglected the more obvious danger of ultras among thousands of football fans. But they were ill-prepared even to face the Islamist danger, he continues. A signalling rocket was fired from the Russian sector among the British fans across the full width of the stadium, after all fans had gone through three stages of security checks. Would professional terrorists have failed to outsmart a security system that could not even cope with football hooligans? He asks.