Far-right strategy behind various acts of violence

On Thursday, the verdict fell in Nacka District Court against two young men, aged 18 and 20. They were charged with arson on November 30, 2019 against a disused mink farm on the outskirts of Sölvesborg. According to the Security Police and the prosecutor in the case, its driving force was eco-fascism, a mixture of social criticism, natural romance, Nazi fantasies and acts of violence.

The men have admitted that they lit it up, but their defense attorneys claim it was serious damage caused by “youthful insanity.” Preliminary research shows that they have been inspired by foreign right-wing extremist groups on the internet.

Calls through online platforms online He was also one of the drivers of hundreds of protesters in Berlin on August 29, 2020. To stop a “crown dictatorship”, they tried to occupy the parliament building, but were stopped at the last minute by the police.

– Neo-Nazis, veiled Muslim women, hippies, QAnon supporters … I’ve never seen such a group of people demonstrate together before, German journalist Jan-Henrik Wiebe who was present told DN.

On January 6 of this year, thousands of Americans who believed in conspiracies and false accusations of voter fraud made a pilgrimage to Washington. They wanted to “save America.” President Donald Trump fired them: “If you don’t fight hell, you won’t have a country anymore.”

After that, many of the participants broke into the congress building. Later, the FBI arrested several right-wing extremists organized among the perpetrators.

These three examples are actions in which the extreme right has participated and in which there is a common mentality. The goal is to create chaos and division, overthrow society, and ultimately pave the way for your ideal society. That warning comes from the state agency Center Against Violent Extremism (CVE).

Appears in a new report that DN has read: “Violent accelerationism of the extreme right”. The word accelerationism is used to describe a strategy previously used by Marxists. By inciting the contradictions of capitalism, they would pave the way for its revolution. Right-wing extremists, who see a race war between “whites” and “non-whites” as inevitable, have made the concept highly topical.

– The extreme right accelerationism is a political strategy in which one sees a social collapse as inevitable. The purpose is to incite it, accelerate it, the collapse of society. This is achieved by polarizing, intensifying conflicts and increasing social unrest. Then they will establish the ideal society, the white ethnostate with its world order, explains Xoncha Nouri, a senior analyst at CVE.

With the Internet, ideas spread quickly. “The Swedes appear to be making significant strides on online platforms where propaganda and communication of the far-right acceleration are shared,” the report states.

– In general, we Swedes are good at English and we have an online culture in which we stay ahead. In far-right circles, the Swedes are noted for their rhetoric, in which they participate and intercept. That’s also the image my European colleagues have, says CVE Director Jonas Trolle, who explains:

– It is easy to radicalize without a counter message. You sit in your room and communicate extensively on the computer with like-minded people who confirm your ideas. It makes online culture a little more dangerous. There is no one there to object: “but what are you going to do !?”

The assault on the United States Congress It has also been followed by the Security Police, whose chief Klas Friberg says:

– I would like to say that we are good at catching up if we see trends for a demonstration to turn into a riot that could mean storming the City Hall in some city – or at worst the Riksdag in Sweden. We have a good image, a good collaboration and we can quickly convert intelligence into active documents of the police authority, says Klas Friberg.

On the other hand, Säpo, Police and CVE are concerned that violent right-wing extremists may act in small groups or entirely alone. Like 21-year-old Anton Lundin Pettersson, whose school attack in Trollhättan in 2015 claimed three lives in addition to his own.

The terrorist threat in Sweden is high, it is at level 3 on a five-point scale. Some motivated right-wing extremists, and Islamists, are seen as the main terrorist threat.

“Various acts of violence have been perpetrated by lone right-wing extremists,” states the CVE report. During the 1960s and 1970s, extremists organized, but today there are loose contacts spread across different continents and countries, more difficult to understand and understand.

– Today there are no leaders where you as an individual choose different ideas to suit you, as a smorgasbord you may not be fully aware of the big picture. You take part in different actions that have emerged from many different contexts, says Jonas Trolle.

Another recent study of the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI) has analyzed 1,000 images of eco-fascist propaganda on the Telegram messaging service. The most common are utopian and romantic visions of nature with animals, women and children. But then there are the acts of violence with men wearing skull masks, guns and explosives. Violence is portrayed in a positive, sometimes even playful way.

According to the preliminary investigation of the fire in Sölvesborg, the defendant had contact with a now dissolved eco-fascist network “The Green Brigade”. This, in turn, had close ties to “The Base”, which is believed to have been founded in St. Petersburg and urged people to commit terrorist acts. Lax organizational forms are opened up “for foreign power to exploit violent extremist actors for their interests,” writes CVE.

Is the number of young violent right-wing extremists increasing?

– I don’t want to be an alarmist. We want to show that this phenomenon and activities are taking place, and its purpose is to generate a violent change in the state, responds Jonas Trolle.

Still, there is a caveat in the report. “Swedish authorities should pay attention to right-wing accelerationist extremism.”

– We explain to the municipalities, schools and police at the local level that this thought exists. It’s important for white-collar workers and others to understand what they see, what forces and ideas there are, so they can have a discussion, Jonas Trolle responds.