Adrian Davies, the far right’s favourite barrister, recently hosted his fellow lawyer, the leading American nazi Sam Dickson, on a private tour of the UK. When riots broke out in Manchester city centre, Davies and Dickson were in the thick of it. Being in their 60s and 70s respectively, they weren’t scuffling with police, merely […]
International
Small but concerning gains for Irish far right in 2024 elections
This year’s election results in Ireland show that the country is not immune from far-right politics. Held on 7 June, the local elections and European Parliament (EU) elections attracted over 100 candidates from far-right parties or those linked to them. Support for these parties in Ireland has historically been low to non-existent. However, the far […]
United front blocked Le Pen’s path to power
Scaremongering about a so-called left threat failed to panic French voters. Instead, writes ROGER PEARCE, the majority set aside their differences, voting against Le Pen’s toxic xenophobia and so stopping her taking a step closer to the presidency As part of her effort to disguise a reinvention of French fascism, Marine Le Pen renamed the National Front […]
Putin on the Ritz…
Internet-monitoring police and intelligence agencies have, according to some journalistic sources, uncovered evidence that Russian trolls and bots have infiltrated the British far right on social media in order to foment rioting and anti-Muslim / anti-immigrant sentiment more generally. Reports Bloomberg: ”Along with homegrown posts, UK authorities now suspect foreign state-backed actors are using bots […]
White Nationalist Motown Meltdown
By Chuck Tanner and Devin Burghart, IREHR On 15 June, influential white nationalist “Groyper” leader Nick Fuentes attempted to hold a fourth version of his America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC IV) in Detroit, Michigan. It was his latest move to pull the right in a more antisemitic and fascist direction. Amidst the chaos of […]
Italian antifascists march against fascist thuggery
By Mark Scholl Anti-fascists demonstrated in Rome last Thursday to protest about right-wing street thuggery – in particular the actions of a group of CasaPound fascists who had opportunistically pounced on and beaten up some passer-by students. The event drew opposition politicians, trade unionists and ANPI, the organisation dedicated to keeping alive the spirit of […]
The European Elections: A Paradigm Shift for the Far Right?
By Martin Smith The evening the French European election results were announced, Marine Le Pen held a party at a swanky night club in the woodlands of the Bois de Vincennes, east of Paris. It was a select gathering of dignitaries from the far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National – RN). In attendance was the party’s […]
Don’t be ambushed by the D Day opportunists
Photo: www.britishnormandymemorial.org We are reflecting, exactly 80 years after the events, on the D Day landings. And sighing in exasperation at the efforts of tinpot populists to make some cheap political capital out of the anniversary, moaning that children and young adults are unaware of the history of D Day. Of course, D Day should […]
Meloni’s reckoning
By Alfio Bernabei Exhibition: 15th April – 13 June 2024 Centenary of Matteotti’s visit to London, Charing Cross Library (see below) Event: Talk by Alfio Bernabei : Thurs 30th May 7pm-8pm@ Charing Cross Library (see below) Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni still refuses to answer the question: “Are you anti-fascist or are you not?” She […]
Under new management: Trump takes over Republican Party apparatus
By Leonard Zeskind Donald Trump has effectively won the Republican Party nomination and is all over TV, the newspapers and the web. He fumes against immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country”and, when critics point out the similarity between his language choices and Hitler’s, he simply repeats himself. He has been transforming the party into […]
CPAC at 50: white nationalism • deportations • war on ‘wokeness’
By Devin Burghart Previously billed as “the most influential gathering of conservatives in the world,” this year’s 50th-anniversary gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was a diminished version of the pre-Trump glory days. Corporate conservativism has been replaced with MAGA conspiracy-mongering and acceptance of white nationalism. CPAC 2024, dubbed “Where Globalism Goes to […]
Farmers’ revolt: A fertile pasture for the far right
By Huw Davies European Parliament, Brussels (Feb 2024) Photo: Matthias Berg/EPP Group In the past few years, European far-right parties have climbed the polls, shaped the policies of mainstream right-wing parties, and even occupied ministerial roles in coalition governments. The reasons for the rise of far-right and populist politics vary from country to country. In […]
Is Russia using the extreme right to carry out operations in Europe? By Roger Pearce
As Searchlight has previously reported, the British far-right is bitterly divided over whether to support Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. For the past two years this has caused splits among nazis and other extremist groups around the world. Recent events in the UK – including arrests for terror offences allegedly carried out on behalf of […]
AfD support falls after plans for mass deportations spark demos across Germany
Support for Germany’s far right AfD has dipped below 20% for the first time since mid-2023, after massive demonstrations across the country against plans for mass deportations which the AfD had been secretly discussing with other extreme right wingers. The revelations came from investigative group Correctiv which revealed in November that senior AfD politicians and […]
Far right and nazis mobilise on Madrid streets
The Spanish election results have served to energise the more astute of nazi elements, who are busy bolstering links with like-minded Europeans. Roger Pearce reports This article was first published in the Winter 2023/24 of Searchlight magazine A narrow victory for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his allies has brought a coalition of conservatives, […]
Bigots whipped up hatred to incite Dublin riots
Austin Harney explains how the right uses social media to spread poisonous lies about asylum-seekers and specifically how this tactic led to recent events in Dublin This article was first published in the Winter 2023/24 issue of Searchlight magazine The end of November saw the Irish far right organise a dangerous riot in Dublin after […]
Populist PVV take most seats in Dutch elections – Charles Fox analyses the results
Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration party gained the most seats in November’s elections, but forming a government in the Netherlands in never simple. Charles Fox sees parallels with past events This article originally appeared in the Winter 2023/24 issue of Searchlight magazine Even by the standards of the often higgledy-piggledy world of Dutch politics, the results of the […]
Don’t underestimate Vox – warns David Karvala
Since the elections, the ultra-right Vox party has been busy mobilising street protests, but has failed to have a great impact. David Karvala warns, however, it is too early to relax This article originally appeared in Winter 2023/24 issue of Searchlight magazine In our Autumn issue we carried an analysis of the biggest Spanish far right […]
Watch out for the MAGA moms
Working the crowd (clockwise from top left): Moms for Liberty founders, Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice, presidential contenders Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Donald Trump; to round off the organisation’s 2023 summit in Philadelphia singer Mary Millben belted out God Bless America. First published in Winter 2023/24 Searchlight magazine A ‘conservative’ organisation that spread to […]
Ukraine and Gaza inflict four-way split on UK far right
The far right is seriously divided over current international events, leading to a peculiar mix and match of ideas. Paul Gale offers a guide to the resulting factions Which corner? In the Pro-Putin Zionist camp, Tommy Robinson (top left) and Paul Golding (top centre); in the pro-Putin anti-Zionist camp, Nick Griffin (above, right) during a […]