Europe’s far right ‘International’ identitarians.

Europe’s far right ‘International’ identitarians.

Verónica Tais Yáñez Reyes. 2022.

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Contradictory as it may seem at first glance, nationalists in Europe from all persuasions of the Right have been attempting to establish their own version of an Internationale for years. And it does make sense if we think about their similarities, what they all concur on, at least on principle, be it quietly or openly; and then examine their visible or invisible variety of fronts, tactics and strategies that overlap at times to achieve their goal: to create a Europe of nations, to bring about what France’s National Rally’s Marine Le Pen calls “a new European harmony with European national parties joining forces” (Euractiv, 2019, np). A team effort to protect national sovereignty and borders, eradicate multiculturalism and fight against what they believe to be the ‘islamisation’ of Europe for the sole benefit of those whom they identify as real European, Die Volk, ‘The People’.

Far-Right Party leaders from Italy, Hungary, France, Netherlands and Poland among others have held numerous meetings for many years to negotiate the establishment of a pan-European ethno-nationalist coalition “centred around a xenophobic nationalism that disapproves any interference with national authority from abroad or supra-national.” (Diermeier, no date), absurdly, within the European Parliament. These nativist politicians are supported by a loyal social movement of common people to defend culture and civilisation in the homeland: a white Christian Fortress Europe, the very core of their identity because as Lavin ( 2020, p. 145) argues “the idea of a racialised culture belonging to whiteness is a key engine of the far right”

The objective of this paper is to describe and critically analyse who are in this Far-Right Populist Identitarian family in their central European strongholds: France, Austria and Germany, mainly. We’ll explore what they think and believe, what they propose, and how they plan to achieve it. In addition to this we will discuss how they have taken advantage of enablers like well-meaning citizens or ‘closet’ racists, and how they have hijacked and essentialised the current political situation in Europe, and the world, to take the spotlight; to gain momentum translated into places in local, national and European parliaments. Both, the parliamentarian and the street Right, intelligently use political rights given by the democratic system they abhor and wish to abolish, such as, freedom of movement, freedom of speech and assembly to mobilise violence and hateful political discourse in governmental institutions and across borders establishing a “transnational street militancy… to disturb or disrupt the prevailing political system, thereby compelling a governmental response” . (Ravndal, 2020, p.3) Titley (2020) warns against immediately accusing them of hypocrisy, however, because it has been productive for them and a success, especially when it comes to derogating the blame and passing the label of intolerant censorship to the anti-fascist opponents.

So, are they fascists? Björn Höcke, a Member of the European Parliament for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), in a speech reminiscent of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, said that their aim is to mobilise and attack a dying democracy in Germany -in his case- and the EU from all sides . (DW Documentary, 2019). In this sense they do know “the history of fascism: that democracy can be destroyed from within” (Traverso, 2019. p. 121) aided by a coordinated and structured militant street wing for which they can count on Europe-wide grassroots fringe organisations. This is a basic requirement for fascism and one of the many defining factors as Renton (2021. P. 145) explains how interwar fascism “combined reactionary goals with an aspiration to build a mass movement”

The rise of the Far-Right in general is still downplayed in most sectors of society and the political establishment who seem to be either in agreement or following a ‘strategy of concealment… If the system is under a taboo and not being discussed, then the order of things is in order” (Meinhof, 2011). Dismissing Far-Right populist parties, Neo-Fascists and Identitarians as fringe clowns, vandals, delinquents is a common approach, yet it requires risky simplification and tunnel vision, especially when we have a historical precedent whose slogans are being reclaimed in the 21st century: Culture. Youth. Homeland. Das Volk.

Therefore, a proper analysis is needed to understand who they are and the context in which they have been able to challenge the status quo in European democracies and succeed in mobilising the underclass, the excluded and marginalised under the banner of pride in their identity and history, and ownership of their nation. Feffer (2021, p. 21) states that this new Right’s main points of contention are “the failure of economic globalisation to benefit the majority, the lack of political legitimacy of the parties that supported neoliberal reforms and the challenges that immigrants and minorities of all kinds represent to an enforced culture of homogeneity”

Populism is not an ideological or economic system to fix issues, but an approach based on, as (Mudde, C., 2017) explain, a clear division between a corrupted political elite and the disenfranchised common people who gravitate towards the charismatic populist leaders and parties such as the UK’s Farage, Hungary’s Orban; the AfD in Germany, and Lega Nord in Italy because they have been otherwise historically patronised, ignored and considered unable to think for themselves or understand politics and economics. Populists act like they care and reach out to the communities in need even establishing food and clothes banks and basic health checks, with a side dish of pride in their national identity and anti-immigrant scapegoating, for impoverished compatriots as long as they are white and Greek (Golden Dawn), or Italian (Casa Pound/Lega Nord), or German (Neo-Nazis Die driette Weg)

Moreover, followers of Populist parties and groups often remark they became interested because only those speak the language of the commoner and understand their frustration at the decline of living standards due to cuts in welfare, austerity, high taxation and laws imposed by out of touch elites who, allegedly, seem more concerned about minorities and migrants. (Mudde, C., 2017). This is not to say people who gravitate towards totalitarian groups are always unaware of the ideology and nature of the organisations. In his 1950’s psychoanalytical study of the authoritarian character Adorno analysed the relationship between high taxes, for instance, and prejudice and found that a majority of those he found to have what he termed ‘taxation complex…the irrational hatred against taxation of the individual by society’ (Adorno, T.W. 2016 p.717) already had antisemitic or bigoted views and were prone to be on his ‘F’ scale whereby ‘F’ stands for ‘Fascist’. The Nazis, Adorno (2016) says, understood this well and used it to their advantage.

But not all populists are fascists or viceversa. Indeed, as Mudde and Kaltwasser (2017) point out, Latin American progressives are prone to populism. Nonetheless, regarding the Right, the liberal use of descriptive terminology interchangeably, that is, the urge to dismiss all of them by using the words ‘Nazi’ or ‘Fascist’ as mere pejoratives, tends to create a defensive formulaic response that, even if it fails to convince they are not neo-Nazis or neo-Fascists, undermines a thorough analysis of their diverse projects and the real danger they pose because, as previously stated, history tells us that, despite being ridiculed, fascists can grow, structure and mobilise very quickly and radicalise even more once they take power. (Renton, 2020). Given that “the world had not experienced a similar growth of the radical right since the 1930s…the old question of the relationship between historiography and the public use of the past” (Traverso, 2019) needs to be addressed.

Consequently, and although differentiations are to be made, the title is justifiable with actual neo-Nazi organisations such as Scandinavia’s Nordic Resistance Movement (Nordiska motståndsrörelsen, NRM) whose Swedish branch is linked to three murders and countless attacks on gay men, Muslims and Jewish people (Counter Extremism Project -CEP-, 2022); the ‘transnational organised crime syndicate” (Koehler, 2016. P.142) Blood and Honour; the terrorist Nationalsozialistische Untergrund (NSU) who murdered nine migrants in the 2000’s in Germany over a period of seven years despite being in the police radar; as well as the equally extreme Attomwaffen Division with cells in the USA and Europe “one of the most hardcore in the world, with AWD members in the United States suspected of having committed five murders” (Musharbash, 2021). The label may also be given to the most extremist elements of organisations like the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA for the original German Patriotische Europäer Gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes), and France-born Europe-wide Generation Identititaire (GI), the latter being the original founders of the Identitarian Movement in France in 2012 and on whom we will put special focus in this paper. Generation Identity (GI) did not take long to branch out to Germany, Italy, the UK, and Austria, the latter being equally important numerically and in terms of Europe wide leadership. Equally, as we will see, France, Germany and Austria chapters have important links with Far-Right parties National Rally, AfD, and Freedom Party respectively.

GI became a real gamechanger for the transnational Far-Right youth force in Europe. In their ground-breaking manifesto filmed with the quality of a professional advertisement, we can see a version of neo-fascism that broke the stereotypes of the Neo-Nazi as a typically uneducated uniformed skinhead. In a disturbing way, it made fascism visually and socially acceptable, ‘hip’. The video acts as a clever façade of clean cut educated, middle class, concerned youth. Nevertheless, it actually is, as the title of the promotional advert itself says, ‘a declaration of war’. The online video was followed by a book by one of Austria’s GI’s spokespersons Markus Willingner called “Generation Identity: A Declaration of War Against the '68ers” In this book, in an uncanny resemblance to the style of the first line of Marx’s ‘Communist Manifesto’, Willingner announces that “A new political current is sweeping through Europe. It has one goal, one symbol, and one thought: Identity” (Willingner, 2013, p.14). Here he mourns the loss of pride in European history and the homeland; complains about the destruction of the traditional family and gender roles; condemns women’s liberation, the LGBTQIA struggle, environmental activism, economic crisis and the rejection of the Christian Church; and summarises the basis of Identitarian ideology stating that they “don’t want a multicultural society where (their) own culture is left to burn in the melting pot.” (Willingner, 2013, p.17)

Andreas Penham, who has investigated GI and the Austrian chapter leader Martin Sellner for years for the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance, explains that “all the leaders come from a militant extremist right wing which we call neo-Nazism in Austria’.(Gopalakrishnan, 2017). Sellner, as it is common with neo-Nazis or Far-Right extremists, denies that GI’s slogans like ‘Islamisation Kills’ is racist, claims they are neither Nazis nor liberals but propose a ‘Thrid Way’, and turns it around claiming they are the real victims of racism and repression for their patriotism and anti-Islam views that are shared by a majority of Austrians. (Strickland, 2018) Identitarians are very media savvy and carry out big stunts not just for propaganda but as racist and Islamophobic direct actions such as the 2012 occupation of a Mosque and the failed attempt to sabotage Sea Rescue efforts and stop migrants physically from crossing borders in the Alps. (Ball, 2017) However they are also secretive about their real ideas and actions, their training camps; and their indulgence and promotion of what Sellner himself calls ‘info wars’, and racist attacks. GI tactics can be said to fit the description of “Accelerationist terrorism as theatre (which) disrupts the political discourse to specifically concentrate attention on highly polarising subjects.” (Parker, 2020) In this case, the subject is mass immigration, refugees, and Islam.

In terms of their politics, Identitarians, like Far-Right parties like the National Rally and Alternative fur Deutschland, are ethno-nationalists, with a pan-European ‘Volkism’ approach that means protecting national sovereignty whilst working together in a whites-only Europe. They are openly racist, Islamophobic white supremacists with a nativist vision of blood and soil, language and culture only to be shared by them. They despise multiculturalism and even reject assimilation. Interestingly, their Anti Semitism, at first glance, seems non-existent, as even they are conscious of historically charged boundaries. Nevertheless, the anti zionist progressive organisation Jewish Voice for Peace state that the Right “celebrate Israel as a front-line defender of Western civilization in its crusade against radical Islam… and use the Jewish state as a canvas to project their own fantasies of nationalist chauvinism, Christian redemption, white pride, and antisemitic conspiracism.” (Lorber, 2021). The idea of the State of Israel as the opportunity to make the Jewish people leave Europe, remigrate, is also something to consider.

Their whole ideology is based on Renaurd. Camus’ ‘Great replacement’ theory drawn out in his 2010 book of the same name where he laments “the prospect of a France and Europe transformed by immigration.”(Feffer, 2021, p.48) . Aware as they are of propaganda tools, this mantra is something they repeat constantly: the imminent ‘white genocide’, white peoples are dying off and governments are conspiring to bring non-white migrants to Europe to have more children to replace the ‘real’ Europeans. Their true antisemitic nature can be seen here as well as they follow the example of Hungary’s Far-Right party in power Fidesz who denounced George “Soros as a Jew… on a mission to ‘breed out’ white people until they were a minority in Europe'' (Renton, 2019. p.146)

Unlike the original Nazis and extreme neo-Nazi terrorists, they do not openly advocate extermination. Their main policy demand against multiculturalism is what Camus called ‘remigration’, “maintaining cultural walls between different ethnic groups”,(Feffer, 2021, p.49) whereby all people with a migrant background regardless of place of birth, citizenship status or length of stay must be deported to what GI thinks is their home country. This fundamental principle emanates from their belief in division by ethno-states, that is, the notion that each ‘race’ belongs to, and must stay in, the physical geographical space natural to them, “a nation that does not need to be the nation in a strict sense, but can be another imagined ethnic community (such as the ‘Aryan’ race, white people worldwide”(Wilhelmsen, 2021, p 277-301)

The Identitarians are self-styled ancient warriors of the homeland, “a patriotic army defending its native soil (sporting their symbol) LAMBDA which was used by the Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC” (Midlands Police, 2019). Interestingly, this mythical glorious past and their almost divine purpose can be summed up in one of their slogans: ‘Reconquista’, in Spanish. They believe in the right of their white European ancestors to colonise every other continent; and yet, when it comes to immigration to Europe now, they consider it an invasion and see it as their duty as patriots is to reconquer their land. An outline on their ideas on how to repatriate millions of migrants was mentioned in an interview for a sympathetic news website given by Clément Martin of the French Generation Identity, which, incidentally is taking legal action against their proscription last year:

“the expulsion of foreigners identified on the “S” list of people posing a potential threat to public security for Islamism, the expulsion of foreigners who have committed a crime or an offence, the loss of nationality for jihadists with dual nationality and their deportation to their country of origin, and some other measures of the same type which are entirely feasible and which should be implemented as a matter of urgency, such as, of course, the expulsion of all illegal immigrants” (Bault, 2021) Although, as noted before, Generation Identitaire has just been banned in France in 2021, it seems too little too late. Despite their use of media to spread hate speech, carry out ‘stunt’ attacks, and even links to more extreme neo-Nazi groups, as well as their influence in terrorist attacks like Christchurch whose perpetrator had donated directly to Austrian GI, Martin Sellner a year prior to the massacre, these organisations and parties don't get disbanded right away (which does not mean they disappear) not just due to the authorities laxity but because, ironically, they are protected by the democratic rights any political party enjoys even if they think of democracy as a dying system that silences them.

Lastly, it is important to point out that Identitarian youth groups like GI and Pegida benefit from connections to, and influence in, far-right parties, especially the French National Rally, the AfD and the Austrian Freedom Party, albeit in secrecy for image and PR purposes even before GI chapters were banned. If their goal was to make ultranationalism and bigotry acceptable again, they have succeeded by co-opting progressive ideas such as women’s rights and freedom of speech to further their “anti-foreigner racism (xeno-racism) and anti-Muslim principles within European immigration asylum”(Fekete, 2018) and have achieved that even so-called liberals join the new ‘trendy’ Right to demand respect for their right to spread hate. However, as Titley warns “the respect demanded is…not that of demonstrating respect for political freedom, but that of displaying the correct attitude toward ‘our’ democracy” (Titley, 2020, p. 23).

Equally, one could argue that the Hostile Environment, the Windrush deportations; and Clause 9 of the New Nationality and Borders Bill being currently discussed in the British Parliament (which would give the UK government the right to strip any person of their citizenship without warning), has uncanny resemblance to the Identitarian principle of remigration. Equally noteworthy, Angela Merkel had to go back on her ‘welcoming’ immigration and asylum policies after the AfD won 13% of the votes. (Traverso, 2019) And yet, in terms of societal change and governance, what lies behind the populist Far-Right politicians and Generation Identity’s stunts; calls to action and pretence to be alike, speak to, and understand the common person’s needs and how to meet them is not holistic durable solutions but just demagogic “policies of national preference and the politics of fear (of invasion by immigrants, of domination by fanatical Muslims, of the violence of the underclass or the human filth of the global poor) represent the only solution the right holds out to communities fragmented by industrial decline and neoliberal abandonment.” (Fekete, 2018. p. 117)

Finally, it may be concluded that the seemingly quick and unexpected rise of the new Far-Right, not just in France, Austria and Germany, or Europe for that matter, in all their forms: Identitarians, Neo-Nazis, Populist parties, aided by liberal classism, the press coverage, and social media, is not a surprise for those they target and oppose, and it is a direct consequence of the alienation and disenchantment with the political establishment, left, right and centre whose prohibitive economic measures have accelerated the ability of these groups to reach out the marginalised communities neglected by every other sector and political force, and they have widened the existing divisions in society that governments have been unable, or unwilling, to address and that work as a distraction. History teaches us what can happen when fascism is allowed to grow, and that it is the work of a united community to use and protect the democratic rights we have to defend ourselves “against the nihilistic forces of violence, to build a better world by keeping (them) at bay” (Lavin, 2020. p.235)

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