As we get ready for the last debate before New Hampshire, where subjects including immigration and Islamic terrorism will surely take the stage, it’s worth checking in on some folks who are already experiencing plenty of both first hand. That would be Europe. This weekend European leaders aren’t talking about stabilizing the Euro or global warming, but what to do about the tens of thousands of protesters who are taking to the streets in anger over the flood of Syrian and Iraqi “refugees” who haven’t exactly been acting like polite house guests since their arrival. Groups in the hundreds and thousands showed up today in Calais, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Warsaw, Slovakia, the UK, Amsterdam and Austria. And much of it wasn’t pretty at all. (AP)

Protesters rallied against Islam and immigration in several European cities Saturday, sometimes clashing with police or counter-demonstrators, amid growing tensions over the massive influx of asylum-seekers to the continent…

Police in Germany expected about 15,000 people at a PEGIDA rally in Dresden, with 10,000 others in a counter-demonstration on the other side of the Elbe River that divides the city.

The group, whose German acronym stands for ‘Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West,’ has become a magnet for far-right and anti-immigrant sentiment since it was founded in Dresden two years ago. After a drop in attendance last spring, the group saw a rise in support from people angered by the unprecedented influx into Europe of refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

CNN had reporters on the scene for most of these protests and there seems to have been a common theme no matter which language it was in. It’s true that they are upset about the sexual assaults, rising crime rates and enormous social welfare bills, but even more to the point they are seeing the erosion of their culture taking place before their eyes. (Emphasis added)

The protest in Calais came in defiance of a ban issued earlier this week by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. Police used pepper spray on some people, and several protesters were arrested as they clashed with the police lines.

A statement by organizers of the various marches elsewhere in Europe said they were “aware of the fact that the thousand-year history of Western civilization could soon come to an end through Islam conquering Europe, and the fact that the political elites have betrayed us.”

Some of those protests were organized by people with ties to far-right parties, but protesters in Calais denied any link to such groups.

Whenever we have discussions about this situation I inevitably come back to Angela Merkel. She has seemed to be the face of the immigration wave since the beginning, above and beyond the other EU leaders who went along with her. She’s heard the footsteps of her political opponents echoing behind her for a while now, but today the message is coming from the streets and it is, shall we say, a bit more blunt. I’ll leave you with this final image to make my point. If your German is a bit rusty, the sign reads, “We are coming, Mommy.”