European Ethno-Nationalist and White Supremacy Groups

19.07.2019

Photo: Illustration - Combat 18 (a.k.a. C18, 318, nicknamed "Terror Machine") is a neo-Nazi group that seeks to create white-only countries through violence. The group was established in the United Kingdom and is now present in at least 18 countries worldwide.

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP)'s European Ethno-Nationalist and White Supremacy Groups report outlines the history, propaganda, violent activities, and notable rhetoric of some of the continent's most active ethno-nationalist and white supremacist groups.

More than 70 years after the defeat of Nazi Germany, ethno-nationalist and white supremacist movements in Europe continue to thrive. They include far-right political parties, neo-Nazi movements, and apolitical protest groups. Some groups openly espouse violent white supremacy, while others have propagated their radical stances under the guise of populism. Such populist groups claim that they are striving to protect average hardworking Europeans by preserving their livelihoods and heritages from economic and cultural threats posed by immigrants and ethnic minorities. Though not all of these groups directly link their ideologies to Nazism, their propaganda portrays immigrants and ethnic minorities in a similar manner to how Nazi propaganda portrayed Jews, blaming them for national economic troubles and depicting them as a serious threat to the broader national identity.

In a June 2018 speech, German Chancellor Angela Merkel recognized that the majority of refugees are victims, and that "escape and expulsion are part of our German and European history." Nonetheless, several far-right political parties in Europe have infused anti-immigrant and particularly anti-Muslim xenophobia into their party platforms through the concept of ethno-nationalism––the idea that a nation should be composed of a single ethnicity. These parties postulate that hardworking European natives are suffering economic and cultural losses due to immigrants and ethnic minorities who want to replace national, religious, and cultural identities with foreign values. Ethno-nationalists also view multiculturalism as a code word for the destruction of the native national identity. For example, Hungary's neo-fascist Jobbik political party rejects "the dead-end Western European multiculturalism" and has pledged to "defend our cultural identity developed over our history." Groups like Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) political party lament the influx of Muslim immigrants, which they claim weakens the German culture and quality of life. AfD has gone so far as to claim that Islam is a danger to Germany.

These far-right political parties have therefore been able to unite ethno-nationalism with populism by propagating the notion that ethno-nationalism serves the average hardworking individual and the broader national identity. Their propaganda campaigns have allowed them to generate substantial popular support and make gains in domestic elections. The AfD came in third in Germany's September 2017 parliamentary elections. In March 2018's Italian parliamentary elections, the far-right, anti-immigrant Lega Nord ("Northern League") party succeeded in becoming the third largest party in Italy's parliament. In June 2018, League leader Matteo Salvini assumed the role of Italy's interior minister. He has since refused a migrant aid ship permission to dock in Italy and called for a national census to address "the Roma question." Both parties also view the European Union as a harmful foreign influence that has undermined the sovereignty of their respective nations. Salvini has even derided the euro as a "German currency" and a "crime against humanity."

Some ethno-nationalist political movements have openly embraced the language and symbolism of the Nazi movement. In Hungary, Gabor Vona, the former chair of the far-right Jobbik, has blamed international Jewry for attempting to buy Hungary and interfere in its elections. Jobbik has also used the Nazi "Arrow Cross" to symbolize pride in Hungary's Nazi past. In 2014, a Hungarian court ruled that Jobbik may be referred to as "neo-Nazi" in Hungary. Despite similarities in propaganda, however, not all of Europe's far-right political movements have openly embraced links to the Nazi or neo-Nazi movements. Members of the French anti-immigrant Les Identitaires movement reject violence and consider themselves to be patriots defending European identity from cultural corruption imposed by Islamic mores. Les Identitaires' youth wing, Generation Identity (GI), has a presence across Europe and uses social media and popular demonstrations to propagate similar anti-Islamic notions and gain traction with young people.

Les Identitaires and GI adhere to the identitarian ideology and its Great Replacement theory, which GI describes as “the process by which the indigenous European population is replaced by non-European migrants.” Employing similar rhetoric, Brenton Tarrant, the white supremacist who allegedly killed 50 people at two New Zealand mosques on March 15, 2019, entitled his manifesto “The Great Replacement” and wrote about the “crisis of mass immigration and … assault on the European people that, if not combated, will ultimately result in the complete racial and cultural replacement of the European people.” The New Zealand attack was a manifestation of the identitarian ideology and its view of a broader white European ethnic identity prevalent in the Western world that transcends national borders. While groups like GI claim to reject violence, they promote an ideology that has led directly toward it.

Some of Europe's historically non-political, violent far-right groups have not only embraced similar populist language to the ethno-nationalist political movements, but also continue to espouse openly racist concepts and employ violence to achieve their visions of an ethnically homogenous state. Combat 18, a violent neo-Nazi skinhead group founded in the United Kingdom in 1992, currently has a presence in at least 18 countries. Similar to ISIS in its aim to create a Muslim-only caliphate, the group encourages supporters to carry out lone-wolf terrorist attacks as part of its greater aim to create white-only countries through violence. National Action is another group of young far-right extremists that, in 2016, became the first far-right group to be labeled as a terrorist organization in the United Kingdom after it praised the murder of a parliamentarian. The group, whose members believe that "Britain should be for British people," reportedly operates training camps where recruits learn hand-to-hand combat in preparation for "white jihad." Not only do these violent white supremacist groups employ similar strategies to some of the most prominent Islamic terror groups, but they are also motivated to pursue the radical end goal of an ethnically or culturally homogenous state due to similar concerns that their identity and way of life are under threat.

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