<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/12/european-far-right-follows-trump-in-calling-for-antifa-to-be-declared-terrorists>
"Where Donald Trump leads, Europe’s nationalists and far right follow. After a
Truth Social post last month, when Trump announced the US would designate
antifa, the decentralised anti-fascist movement, “a major terrorist
organisation”, his international allies swung into action.
That same day, the Dutch parliament, where the largest party is Geert Wilders’
far-right PVV, passed a resolution, noting the US decision and calling on the
government to declare antifa a terrorist organisation in the Netherlands.
Then the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán – more usually a source of
inspiration for Trump – said his country would follow suit. Next, in the
European parliament, a far-right MEP from the Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang
party drafted a resolution with the same request. Tom Vandendriessche announced
last week that 79 MEPs from 20 countries supported his proposed text. In a
video posted on X with ominous music playing, he described antifa as “an
international network that is supported, financed and protected by the system
to fight the nationalist opposition with violence”.
Experts characterise antifa rather differently, instead describing it as a
loose identity movement with neither leaders nor membership structure. While it
has origins in Europe, it gained attention in the US after Trump’s election in
2016.
“Antifa is not what I would call an identifiable group or organisation [but] a
movement, perhaps,” Jessica White, acting director of terrorism and conflict
studies at the Royal United Services Institute, told the
Guardian.
“On the basis of that lack of clear definition, I think it’s very challenging,
if not counterproductive, to try and designate it,” she added. The security
services, she said, would see “the least amount of value” in such a
designation, as “usually what I’ve seen is that it is much easier to reach a
verdict and a prosecution based upon focusing on the actual acts of violence.”
She added: “I think there’s probably a very justified sense of fear around how
it could be used in a politically motivated way to target people that are seen
as opponents to a more rightwing political government.”"
Via Aladár Mézga and Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
