Driving through western Sweden, through pine forests dotted with moose warning signs, Lars Sternelof says he has noticed a worrying new trend among boys. Since Donald Trump's inauguration in January, after which the US president's top adviser and the world's richest man, Elon Musk, made two fascist salutes, there has been an increase in the use of the Nazi salute among children in Värmland schools.
“They’re not doing it as a tribute to Hitler – they’re doing it because Musk did it,” says the sociologist, who works to counter violent extremism in the county where the Swedish Nazi Party was founded 100 years ago. He adds that “Musk’s salute has attracted a lot of attention,” and that some boys find it “a bit cool.”
While he says the number of children engaging in such behavior is small and by no means widespread, it does highlight the need for early intervention when it comes to the recruitment of boys into far-right groups. “It’s a violent message, and it can be very serious if they are drawn to it. It certainly needs to be taken seriously.”
The far right has long been present in Sweden, but as in the rest of Europe and the US, in recent years there has been a dramatic change in the dominant groups, their structure, activities and methods of recruitment.
The number of active far-right groups in Sweden is currently at its highest level since 2008, according to a new report by the Swedish anti-racism institute Expo. After several years of decline, last year saw a rise in the number of groups that “attract a new generation of young men who have lost faith in democracy.” Violence, the report says, is playing an increasingly important role, “both in rhetoric and in actual violent acts.”
Sweden's largest neo-Nazi group, the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR), is no longer the force it once was. Its activities have been severely affected after the US government designated it a terrorist organisation last year, leading to a freeze on its assets in the US and a block on its access to the US financial system. The group has been further weakened by changes in leadership and is facing difficulties recruiting younger men from its increasingly older membership.
However, in its shadow, numerous new, smaller, more mobile and, for many, more invisible groups have emerged that use racist memes and violent videos to attract new members on platforms like TikTok, before communication moves to other, closed platforms.
Sternelof, who works for Agera Värmland, a group that helps people leave violent extremism, says one of the most noticeable changes is the drastic drop in the age of young men being recruited. Some of the boys being recruited, he says, are now as young as 10.
The second big change is the profile of those who are attracted to these groups. “Ten to fifteen years ago, it was mostly strong, impressive guys who wanted to be seen,” says Stiernelof. “Today, it’s young, vulnerable boys who spend a lot of time online and who may lack social contact. That’s a very big difference.”
The rise in violent far-right groups is not happening in a vacuum. The right-wing Sweden Democrats won the second-highest number of seats in the 2022 parliamentary elections, after linking the rise in gang crime to immigration. Its leader, Jimi Åkesson, has also publicly endorsed folkutbyte, a far-right conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement.”
Deje is a relatively small community of just a few thousand people in Värmland, but in recent years it has become a hotbed of far-right activity. Above a car repair shop, overlooking a river and among wooden houses in traditional colors, is the Swedish headquarters of the racist group Hammerskins. The US-based Nazi organization is banned in Germany, but in Deje it has met with a “tense kind of acceptance” from the local community, says Sternelof.
Although the number of members is relatively small, estimated at between eight and ten people, mostly men in their forties and fifties, the space has become a gathering place for other far-right groups, including the NMR, as well as an international destination for organizations like the Proud Boys, who visited the site last summer.
In the center of Deje, near a shop and a soccer field used by local children, there was also the headquarters of the Gym XIV club, until the local authorities removed it. The facility, according to Sternelof, was in use for about a year and a half, and there was also a fighting “cage” in front of it. It is not known where the group now meets, but it is believed to be not far away. These clubs are focused on violence - training for what they say is coming: a race war.
“These are young white men. They talk a lot about ‘white genocide,’ ‘white lives matter.’ They see a threat to white power,” says Sternelof. Their role models include figures from the so-called manosphere, such as Andrew Tate and Marcus Folin, a Swedish white nationalist YouTuber known as “Golden,” whose Instagram is full of bodybuilding photos.
In addition to racism, the hatred of these far-right groups is also directed towards LGBTQ+ people and women.
The family lives of those who are recruited are “very diverse,” says Sternelof. But the main warning sign of vulnerability is the fact that they are mostly outsiders, those who don't feel like they belong.
Trump's reelection has further strengthened the far right in Sweden, says Sternelof, even among those who do not openly declare themselves as his supporters, because there is a feeling that "we have a leader in the White House who supports our cause."
At the Stockholm office of Expa, researcher Jonathan Lehmann says that far-right groups “feel closer to the mainstream today,” in part because of Trump. “The previous administration saw the global rise of the far-right as a threat.” The Trump administration, he says, is “sending the opposite message,” through Musk’s public support for right-wing groups and “his expression of support for the core ideology of the far-right.” NMR, he adds, even expressed hope that the group could be stripped of its U.S. designation as a terrorist organization.
In its latest annual report, the Swedish security service Sapo paints a worrying picture of how the overlap of active clubs and online radicalization could translate into a rise in violence in the future.
It warned that terrorist groups are using digital platforms and gaming environments to reach younger target audiences, with the aim of radicalizing and mobilizing at an ever-increasing rate. “Security services are handling cases involving children who have not yet entered adolescence,” the report said, and young people are “often drawn to violence as an ideology.”
It further states: “In addition to online problems, active clubs within right-wing extremism are also a growing phenomenon in Europe, primarily attracting younger people.”
A former member of far-right groups in Sweden, who wished to remain anonymous, was involved in the movement for ten years, starting before he was 13. He left the movement a few years ago, but was initially drawn to the community. “It was cool.”
The movement has changed drastically in recent years, he said, moving from relatively public operations to greater secrecy. “Today the movement is very fluid, not so open, but there is a lot of propaganda directed outward, especially online. It is very organized, tightly connected and well networked. But the outside world has much less insight into how it works, how it reacts and who the actors are.”
Translation: NB
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