Last month, during a search of a house in Baden, Austrian police found an arsenal of weapons, 1200 kilograms of ammunition, Nazi memorabilia and a huge amount of gunpowder. About 50 weapons, including machine guns and rifles, were seized, and police said the house belonged to a 53-year-old man who was "suspected of Nazi activities."
Commenting on the police action, the Austrian Minister of the Interior Carl Nehammer said: "Decided action against right-wing extremism is not only part of our historical responsibility, but also a clear commitment to our democratic coexistence in Austria."
In an article about right-wing extremism in Europe, the American CNN points out that this was not the first action against neo-Nazis in Austria this year. In July, police seized automatic weapons and hand grenades in coordinated raids on members of a biker gang whose leader planned to form a "militia of respectability" to "overturn the system."
Support for Nazism is a criminal offense in Austria. The most famous Austrian neo-Nazi is Gottfried Kusel, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2013 for propagating Nazism on the Internet.
Bernhard Weidinger, who studies the extreme right in the Austrian Resistance Document Archive in Vienna, told CNN that thanks to the criminalization of Nazi ideology, it is neither particularly strong nor organized in that country. However, he points out that discoveries of large quantities of weapons are becoming more frequent.
Neo-Nazi activity is often associated with biker gangs, organized crime and football fans. In Austria, a group called "Immortals" follows the club Rapid Vienna, and occasionally displays the flag of the Third Reich at matches. In Italy, fan groups known as the Ultras adopt fascist slogans and symbolism. Authorities say Austrian neo-Nazi activists often associate with similar groups in Germany, seeing themselves as part of the larger German Reich.
In January of this year, the Austrian rapper Mr. Bond he was arrested and accused of "producing and broadcasting Nazi ideas and inciting hatred". One of his songs was used by a man who live-streamed an attack on a synagogue in Germany in 2019.
The attack came a year after one in three Austrians said in a survey commissioned by CNN that Jews in their country were exposed to racist violence. Almost half said anti-Semitism was a growing problem. The same survey showed that 12 percent of people aged 18 to 34 had never heard of the Holocaust.
Austria is trying to deal with anti-Semitism in a number of ways. For nearly a decade, a statue in Vienna has been at the center of that troubled history. It is about Carl Luger, the mayor of Vienna from the beginning of the 20th century. Luger used anti-Semitic sentiment to get into office, propagating Christian and Germanic supremacy, and was widely admired Adolf Hitler.
CNN reports that the bronze statue, four meters high, has been vandalized but still stands prominently in a square in Vienna. The city authorities decided earlier this month that it will remain there, but that it will be put into context.
One group advocating for the protection of the statue is the Identity Movement of Austria (IBO) - the Austrian branch of the larger European movement. Their leader Martin Selner he visited the statue after the word "shame" was written on it. Austrian authorities prosecuted Sellner and 16 other people in 2018, accusing them of hate speech and criminal association. After a stormy trial, they were acquitted. CNN points out that the members of the Identity Movement in Austria were more damaged by the discovery that they received a donation from the man who carried out the attacks on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019, and that Sellner was in contact with him.
Sellner immediately publicly denied any connection with the attack and said that the money would be given to charity, but the connection seriously damaged the reputation of the IBO in the eyes of a large part of the Austrian public.
Analysts distinguish between traditional neo-Nazis - whose activities are based on violence and crime - and new identity groups, which are political in nature. In addition to IBO and Selner in Austria, CNN points to the Identity Generation movement in France and the New Right in Germany.
However, both Identarians and neo-Nazi ideologues benefited from the conspiracy theories that flourished with the KewAnon movement and protests against vaccination policies during the pandemic. Selner argues that such movements should be used for the only thing that really matters: resistance to mass migration.
In Vienna, Gottfried Kusel - who was released from prison - and other neo-Nazis joined protests against measures to curb the pandemic.
Wedinger tells CNN that it's noticeable and troubling that they've attracted a younger generation, people in their twenties.
CNN cites as an example the Berlin gathering of 40 people, who protested against the lockdown and the "deep state", where there was a noticeable number of extreme right-wingers as well as support to Donald Trump. In a video message, Sellner told the protesters that they can mobilize a "large patriotic mass" to fight against the "grand strategy" of the global elites.
In both Germany and Austria, more extreme factions are talking about "Day X" - an apocalyptic fantasy when democratic institutions will collapse in a wave of violence and a neo-Nazi state will rise. This was a constant topic on the Telegram channel of a German far-right group that included police officers and ex-soldiers.
CNN points out that there is ideological overlap between identity Nazi groups and European right-wing parties, such as the Freedom Party in Austria, the National Rally in France and the Northern League Matteo Salvini in Italy.
In July, 16 right-wing parties signed a statement on the future of Europe, warning that "European nations should be based on tradition, respect for the culture and history of European countries, respect for the European Judeo-Christian heritage and common values that unite our nations."
"At a time when Europe is facing a serious demographic crisis due to a low birth rate and an aging population, family policies should be the answer instead of mass migration," the right-wingers said.
Sellner and the Identarians use the same narrative, warning of a “great replacement” in which white Europeans will be swept away by the tide of migration.
The European extreme right is a fractured environment where political activism and calls for violence overlap, and groups grow and coalesce rapidly. Much of the activity takes place online or underground, but lockdowns, mandatory vaccinations and an epidemic of conspiracy theories have given new impetus in Europe and America as well.
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