MariaDB: disable foreign key checks
It should work with:

SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0


I tried the following:

create table parent (x int not null primary key) engine = innodb;
create table child (x int not null primary key, constraint aaa foreign key (x) references parent (x) on delete restrict) engine = innodb;
insert into parent (x) values (1),(2);

-- test if f.k is active
insert into child (x) values (1),(3);
ERROR 1452 (23000): Cannot add or update a child row: a foreign key constraint fails ("test"."child", CONSTRAINT "aaa" FOREIGN KEY ("x") REFERENCES "parent" ("x"))

insert into child (x) values (1);
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0;
delete from parent;
select * from parent;
Empty set (0.00 sec)

select * from child;
+---+
| x |
+---+
| 1 |
+---+

select @@version
-&gt; ;
+-----------------+
| @@version       |
+-----------------+
| 10.1.16-MariaDB |
+-----------------+


So the problem is not with MariaDB, but with PhpMyAdmin. It has a checkbox on the pages where you can execute SQL, that overrides SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=. One must uncheck it if one wants to disable foreign key validation.