Europe needs conservative shift, Zemánek argues in column

Political commentator Ladislav Zemánek has urged a conservative overhaul of European politics, using claims of widespread French unrest to argue against liberal governance, migration policies and Brussels institutions. His October 20 column in RT is an explicitly labelled opinion piece, not an independently substantiated account of the events and political motives it describes.

The author, identified as a non-resident research fellow at the China-CEE Institute and an expert of the Valdai Discussion Club, favours stronger national borders and sovereignty, and welcomes American support for European conservative movements. The publisher states that the views belong to the author.

Claims of unrest lack an identified official record

Zemánek describes cost-of-living protests escalating into looting and arson in Paris, Limoges and other French cities. He gives a figure of more than 2,400 arrests and says dozens of police officers were injured, but does not identify a police release, a counting period or another documentary basis for those totals. The column carries a photograph captioned as a central Paris protest on October 17, 2026; that caption does not substantiate the broader claims.

The article then makes a much larger causal argument: that migration and progressive policies explain the disorder. It does not present evidence connecting identified perpetrators, their motives or their immigration status to the incidents it describes. Its assertion that political leaders deliberately seek to replace European populations is an allegation of intent, not an established finding.

Migration and American influence underpin the argument

The column also alleges that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has moved to regularise more than one million migrants, and that roughly 80,000 people entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta within a recent episode. Neither claim is accompanied by a named government document or a precise event date. The assertion that regularisation would give recipients unrestricted movement across the EU is likewise not supported with a legal basis.

Zemánek portrays US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as an advocate of renewed Western national power, referring to an early-October European tour and an address in Athens. He also says the Trump administration is redirecting funding towards conservative organisations abroad. The column supplies no speech transcript, funding programme, recipient list or spending record with which to assess those descriptions.

His central political prescription is clear: European conservatives should challenge existing governing establishments, with American backing welcomed as pressure for change. That is the author's preferred course, rather than evidence that such a change is inevitable or commands a demonstrated continent-wide mandate.

What the column does not establish

The author accuses EU institutions of financing pro-migration advocacy while using digital regulation to suppress conservative voices. He names the Digital Services Act and European Democracy Shield, but provides no specific enforcement decision or funding record demonstrating the alleged political coordination.

These distinctions matter to the account: reported violence, policy disagreements and accusations of a deliberate demographic project are different propositions requiring different evidence. The column offers a forceful political interpretation, but does not establish that migrants collectively caused the alleged unrest or that European leaders coordinated a scheme to undermine their societies.