This section profiles traditional far-right parties and individuals that are not exclusively within the ‘counter-jihad’ realm, but have increasingly adopted anti-Muslim rhetoric as an important tenet of their platform.
Included here are a broad range of parties, ranging from the populist radical right (such as UKIP) to extreme, fascist groups (such as the British National Party and Forza Nuova).
Many within the wider counter-jihad milieu would not countenance any links with the more extreme groups listed here, not least because of deep ideological divides. The most important divide is that some of the parties listed here are steeped in antisemitism, and a more general, blanket racism; Muslims are just one enemy among many.
For those groups inclined towards conspiratorial antisemitism, the ‘invasion’ of Muslims into Europe can be viewed as another symptom of a secret Jewish plot to undermine the West.
Such ideas would be an anathema to orthodox counter-jihad activists, some of whom are Jewish and many staunch supporters of Israel.
Leader: Heinz-Christian Strache
General Secretary: Herbert Kickl
Founded in April 1956 by the merger of three right-wing organisations, the FPÖ is a populist, nationalist, anti-immigration (and anti-Muslim far-right party.
In 2015, the FPÖ made significant gains in Styria and Burgenland, following a strongly anti-immigrant campaign combined with anti-EU demagogy. It campaigned using slogans such as “new homes instead of new mosques” and “jobs for our folks”. In Styria, the FPÖ’s share of the vote almost trebled from the previous election, coming a close third with more than 27% of the vote. In Burgenland, it increased its vote by six percent to 15%.
FPÖ politician Norbert Hofer won the first round of the 2016 Austrian presidential election, receiving 35.10% of the vote. He then lost in the second round to Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen with 49.7% of the vote against Van der Bellen’s 50.3%.
The FPÖ has had a strong influence on increasing Islamophobia in Austria. In February 2015, new laws were brought in to ferment a “European Islam”, stating that all Islamic organisations and imams were banned from receiving money from abroad, and for imams to speak only in German. In response, the FPÖ has become increasingly hardline, calling the new laws a “placebo”.
In the national elections 2017 the party won 26% of the vote, making it the third largest party in Austria and gaining 11 more seats in the legislature (totaling 51). Following the election, the party entered into coalition with the conservative Österreichische Volkspartei (Austrian People’s Party/ÖVP).
The FPÖ has links with several other European far-right and right-wing populist parties and is part of the far-right Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group in the European Parliament. FPÖ general secretary Harald Vilimsky has made clear that the party will not give up its membership of the ENF, despite now being part of the governing coalition in Austria.
Chair: Volen Nikolov Siderov
Founded in April 2005 as a coalition of several far-right and far-left organisations, Ataka is a populist, ultra-nationalist, antisemitic, anti-Roma, anti-Turkish and anti-Muslim party. ATAKA has seen a fall in votes over recent years, dropping from fourth in the polls (with 7.3% of the national vote) in 2012 to seventh in 2014.
The group held a violent protest at the Sofia Banya Bashi Mosque in June 2011, resulting in three supporters being arrested and one of the party’s MPs, Denitsa Gadzheva, being injured.
Following the 2017 elections, the party makes up part of the United Patriots parliamentary group, which together with the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, forms the current coalition government.
ATAKA publishes the ATAKA newspaper.
Leader: Simeon Kostadinov
This group was formed in November 2013 by neo-Nazi factions including the Formations National Resistance, the Bulgarian National-Radical party and the local branch of the international Blood and Honour skinhead network.
The party engaged in “civil patrols” to stop and check migrants, which have been compared to those carried out by Greek neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn.
In 2014 the party was unable to gain sufficient signatures to stand a candidate in the European Parliament elections and it failed to register after it could not prepare the required documents.
The party’s Facebook page last posted in August 2015.
Leader: Kristian Thulesen Dahl
The Danish People’s Party (DPP) was founded in October 1995 as a breakaway from the Progress Party (FP). It is a populist, ultra-nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-Islam party which advocates the complete halting of immigration from non-western countries, linked to its anti-Muslim agenda.
In 2006, the party’s popularity rose dramatically following the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. The DPP poster for the 2007 election featured a drawing of the Prophet Muhammad with the caption “Freedom of speech is Danish, censorship is not” and “we stand our ground on Danish values”.
In the 2011 parliamentary elections the Danish People’s Party polled 12.3% of the national vote, securing 22 seats in parliament.
The DPP lent its support to the Liberal-Conservative government from 2001 until 2011. While it was not part of the cabinet, it cooperated closely with the governing coalition on most issues and received support for key political stances in return.
In 2014 the party won the European Parliamentary election as the largest party in Denmark with 26.6% of the vote. After the election it joined the European Conservatives and Reformists Group alongside parties such as the Conservative Party of the UK, the right-wing Law and Justice of Poland and radical-right Alternative for Germany. It received 21.1% of the vote in the Danish general election in 2015.
In the run-up to the 2017 Danish regional and municipal elections, senior DPP figures declared that there should be an end to “concessions for Muslim traditions” when referring to a demand that Muslim men working as doctors in Denmark should cut their beards.
Henrik Thorup of the DPP told Berlingske that: “When you have a beard this size […] You’re making a statement: I am a Muslim. No Danish man, if they were a doctor, would walk around with such a beard”.
Leader: Michael Ellegaard
Frit Danmark (A Free Denmark) is an anti-Muslim organisation named after the cross-party national publication Frit Danmark (9 April 1942-1945) which advocated liberation from the German occupation of Denmark.
Having previously participated in local and regional elections in 2005, 2009 and 2013, in April 2015 Frit Danmark announced that it was entering a collaboration with the Progress Party together with Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark (SIAD) to support its general election campaign. The collaboration was formed with the intention to provide a democratic alternative to combat the “Islamisation of Denmark”. In June 2015 the profile photo on its Facebook page was a picture of Michael Ellegaard in uniform carrying an air gun standing next to the Danish flag.
In January 2017 Ellegaard was sentenced to jail for threatening a public servant. He was previously sentenced to jail for shooting at a police officer in 2012.
The group’s website has not posted since April 2015, when it announced its collaboration with the Progress Party, though it has an active Facebook page. It stood in the 2017 municipal and regional elections, though returned no candidates.
Former Leader: Lars Grønbæk Larsen
Prominent activists: Dan Jensen, Rene Lindberg, Søren Mortensen and Lars Rask.
Founded in 2007 as a nationalist organisation by former leaders of the racist Dansk Front network, Vederfølner was an anti-immigration movement and campaigned against the supposed Islamisation of Denmark.
Although now defunct, it saw a revival during a planned secret right-wing alliance of several Danish organisations in 2012, driven by Lars Grønbæk Larsen. The network used Facebook under the name ‘Nationale Arrangementer På Tværs’.
The group dissolved in November 2014 and Lars Grønbæk Larsen then got involved in the Danish Defence League.
A secret right-wing alliance of several Danish organisations formed in 2012, this was driven by Lars Grønbæk Larsen.
The network used Facebook under the name ‘Nationale Arrangementer På Tværs’ to organise lectures with The Free Press Society, Svenskarnas Parti’s 1 May demonstration, the spring 2013 meetings of the Danish Association, and the ‘No to Mosques’ demonstration at City Hall Square in Copenhagen in May 2013.
The group’s associates included the DDL, The Danish Free Press Society, Vederfølner, The Freedom Party, the Danish Association, The Danish National Front and the Danskernes Party.
The alliance is now inactive.
Leader: Pernille Vermund
Founded in 2015 by Pernille Vermund and Peter Seier Christensen, formerly of the Conservative People’s Party, Nye Borgerlige (NB) is an anti-Muslim and anti-immigration party.
In May 2016 Vermund said she wanted to “step out of the refugee convention and stop all asylum processing in Denmark” as well as “send home all immigrants here on temporary residence […] Even if that means sending people back to war-torn nations”. She also called for a ban on headscarves in schools and public institutions.
A September 2017 blog post on the NB site by Vermund, called “Islam is a Culture of Violence”, said:
“Everywhere in the Islamic world, violence is a natural phenomenon that is present in all aspects of society. We must not accept misunderstood multicultural tolerance of the Muslim violence culture. We must expose and show it – and then we will reject it from Denmark.”
Chair: Anita Saarinen
Vice Chairs: Kim Ahonen, Laura Lehtinen
Party Secretary: Anita Saarinen
Founded in 2009, this is a right-wing Finnish political party that takes its name from the 2011 Finnish parliamentary elections (though it only attracted 7,504 votes).
Muutos 2011 campaigns for free speech and has a hardline approach to immigration and crime. It is also strongly anti-Muslim. The party was removed from the party register in 2015 when it was left without MPs in two consecutive parliamentary elections.
It participated in a demonstration organised by HOMMA in Helsingfors in October 2015. Jussi Halla-Alo spoke at the demonstration
The party remains active and is holding its Autumn party meeting on 9 December 2017.
Founders: Pekka Kemppainen and Susanna Kaukinen
A protest organisation founded by Pekka Kemppainen and Susanna Kaukinen in August 2015, Rajat Kiinni was created as a reaction to an increase of asylum seekers coming to Finland.
It organised several demonstrations in various cities in Finland across 2015 and 2016, together with Suomen Ensin. On 6 February 2016 it demonstrated in Seinajoki as a part of Pegida’s pan-European anti-immigration day.
At the beginning of 2016 Rajat Kiinni declared that it would shun all party politics and remain a mass protest movement. This led to a split in the group and the establishment of Suomi Ensin.
It has continued to demonstrate throughout 2017.
Founders: Marco de Wit and Panu Huuhtanen
Marco de Wit and Panu Huuhtanen, who were both members of Rajat Kiinni (Close the Borders), founded Suomi Ensin in 2016. It is an anti-immigration and anti-EU organisation which wants to stop the supposed Islamisation of Finland. It has attempted to collect the 5,000 signatures needed to register as a political party.
The movement is internationally connected to like-minded groups, such as its British counterpart Britain First, and its demonstrations host international speakers such as Mona Walter, an ex-Muslim from Sweden who frequently speaks against Islam.
In July 2016 Suomi Ensin demonstrated against Ramadan festivities at the Itis shopping mall, with Huuhtanen speaking of the supposed Islamisation of Finland and criticising Itis for facilitating the Ramadan event.
In August 2016, the former French diplomat Michel Paulath engaged in hate speech at a demonstration in Helsinki. The video of this event was also shared by the far-right politician Ignaz Bearth (FPÖ party member in Austria) with the words: “Strong words but true. Islam is not tolerant”. In his speech, Paulath explicitly addressed the Muslims in the audience and called them, among many things, stupid and “out of this world”, and denied their right to existence. It was a speech that might have violated Finnish Law as an incitement to hatred.
Suomi Ensin has also demonstrated against mosques and refugee centres.
Marco De Witt took part in the local elections of Tammerfors in 2017.
Co-founder: Timo Soini
Leader: Jussi Halla-aho (2017)
Founded 13 October 1995 as the successor to the Finnish Rural Party (SMP), the True Finns is a populist, nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim party. In 2015, it joined Finland’s current government coalition.
In the 2015 general election the True Finns won 17.7% of the vote, making it the country’s second largest party. In 2015 it joined the current government coalition. Its leader Timo Soini became Foreign Minister.
Since the elections the government has been forced to make substantial cuts to the welfare system and at the same time accepted more immigrants. According to a poll carried out by the newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, The True Finns has lost half of its voter support.
In 2011 True Finn MP James Hirvisaari was fined €1,425 by the Kouvola Court of Appeals for comments he made on his blog about Muslims. In 2013, Finns MP James Hirvisaari, who had been reprimanded following anti-Muslim and racist comments, was finally expelled from the party for photographing a friend doing a Nazi salute outside Parliament. Hivisaari is now affiliated with Muutos 2011.
The website of True Finn MP and party leader Jussi Halla-aho links to the Gates of Vienna blog and it in turn described his election to Parliament as a “celebration”. In a judgement given on 8 June 2012, Halla-aho, then chair of the Administration Committee, was found guilty by the Supreme Court of both disturbing religious worship and ethnic agitation for statements he made about (Prophet) Muhammad in his blog.
When Jussi Halla-aho was elected chair for the True Finns in 2017, it led to a governmental crisis. In order to save the government every minister and MP for the True Finns left their party and formed a new group, New Alternative, in support of the government. The New Alternative will run in the 2019 election. The election of Halla-aho also led to a split in the party overall.
Founder: Jean-Marie Le Pen
Leader: Marine Le Pen (daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen), since 2011
Founded in 1972, The Front National (FN) is a nationalist, racist party which opposes immigration and is anti-Muslim.
It was led by Jean-Marie Le Pen until 2011. Le Pen had convictions for dismissing the Holocaust as a “mere detail” of the Second World War, for violence, and for claiming the Nazi occupation was not “particularly inhumane”.
The FN is now one of the major political forces in France.
In 2011, Le Pen’s daughter, Marine, took over the party leadership. On 4 May 2015, Jean-Marie Le Pen was suspended and later dismissed from the party, leading to a family feud.
Marine Le Pen stirred up controversy with a speech to party members in Lyon on 10 December 2010, when she claimed that the “weekly illegal blocking of public streets and squares throughout France for Muslim prayers” was comparable with an occupation of parts of French territory.
She also exploited the March 2012 murders by an Islamist extremist gunman in Toulouse of several soldiers and Jewish school children to stigmatise French Muslims. Following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015, Le Pen called for the FN to participate in the Republican march held in Paris, but was blocked by the mainstream parties.
Support for the party increased in the aftermath of the attacks, with the first opinion poll on voting intentions carried out shortly afterwards, in late January 2015, showing Le Pen on 30% of first-round votes, an increase of three to five points and enough to stand her in the lead, ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande.
She came second in the presidential election in 2017 with 33.9% of the vote.
Co-Founder and Leader: Roberto Fiore
Co-founder: Massimo Morsello
Founded 29 September 1997 by former members of Terza Posizione, Forza Nuova (FN) is a neo-fascist, Catholic fundamentalist, anti-immigration, antisemitic and anti-Muslim party.
The party is a member of the European National Front. It only took 0.26% of the overall vote in 2013 and did not run in 2014.
Since 2015 it has been part of the pan-European party Alliance for Peace and Freedom, where Roberto Fiore is the Chair/President.
In November 2017 members of FN put a banner in front of a mosque in Savona declaring “Italy Christian Never Muslim”.
For the 2018 general election the group formed the ‘Italy for the Italians’ coalition alongside Movimento Sociale – Fiamma Tricolore, winning no seats.
Founder: Umberto Bossi, resigned as leader April 2012
Leader: Matteo Salvini
Founded 15 February 1991 by the merger of the Lombardy League, Venetian League and other regionalist movements and autonomist parties in northern Italy, the Lega Nord (Northern League) advocates the establishment of an independent ‘Padania’ in northern Italy.
Lega is a populist, regionalist, anti-immigration, anti-Roma and anti-Muslim party. It publishes the daily newspaper La Padania and claims to have over 100,000 members. In the last election in 2013 it received 4.1% of the vote on average – with the highest percentages in Lombardia (12.9%) and Venice (10.5%) and lowest in Toscana with 0.7% percent. It has 5 MEPs.
In October 2017 Lega participated in a meeting with Lorenzo Fiato of Generazione Identitaria. The aim was to discuss the ‘Defend Europe’ mission of the anti-Musli and anti-migrant Generation Identity movement, which attempted to disrupt the work of NGOs saving refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
The party’s current leader Salvini has transformed Lega from a fringe party to a major political force in Italy. The party dropped the word “Nord” from their logo in December 2018. In the 5 March 2018 general election the party won 17.69% of the vote, becoming the third largest party.
Mario Borghezio
Mario Borghezio is one of Lega’s MEPs. In June 2013 he was expelled from the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group in the European Parliament for making racist remarks regarding Italy’s first black cabinet minister, Cécile Kyenge.
Strongly anti-immigrant, Borghezio was convicted in 1993 for ‘arresting’ a 12-year-old unregistered Moroccan street seller.
In 2005 he was found guilty of setting fire to pallets that migrants were sleeping under in Turin. On 11 September 2007 he was arrested by Belgian police for participating in a protest against the supposed Islamisation of Europe.
After the arrest of Ratko Mladic for the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, Borghezio described the Serb as a “patriot”. He also said: “The Serbs could have halted the advance of Islam into Europe, but they weren’t allowed to do so.”
He said of Anders Breivik: “One hundred per cent of Breivik’s ideas are good, in some cases extremely good. The positions of Breivik reflect the views of those movements across Europe which are winning elections.’
He was suspended for three months by his party for his comments.
Roberto Calderoli
A leading member of Lega and considered to be a flame bearer for the right of the party, Calderoli was in office between 8 May 2008 – 16 November 2011.
During the international crisis sparked by the publishing of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons in Denmark, Calderoli called for the Pope to form a ‘coalition’ against Muslims. He then announced that he would wear a t-shirt depicting the cartoon and later the same day displayed his t-shirt on national television. However, the cartoon displayed was actually one drawn by the French newspaper France Soir rather than the offending Danish version.
This still caused a reaction, most notably in Libya where 1,000 people demonstrated outside the Italian consulate. In the following clashes with police, at least 11 people died and 25 were injured. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi asked Calderoli to resign as a Cabinet minister but he initially refused. However, with pressure mounting, he did step down from his role a few days later.
He is known for his racist remarks made in 2013 towards Italy’s first minister Cécile Kyenge at a Northern League rally in Treviglio.
President: Alessandro Bordoni
National Secretary: Attilio Carelli
(Chair of Central Committee: Francesco Condorelli Caff)
Founded 27 January 1995 as a breakaway from the Italian Social Movement (MSI), the MS-FT is a populist, neo-fascist, Third Positionist, antisemitic and anti-Muslim party. Membership was estimated at 5,000 in 2005.
The party stood in the 2013 general election but won no seats and did not run in the 2014 European parliamentary elections.
For the 2018 general election the group formed the ‘Italy for the Italians’ coalition alongside Roberto Fiore’s far-right New Force party, winning no seats.
A society led by Armando Manocchia based in Imola, Italy, dedicated to the memory of Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci (born 29 June 1929; died 15 September 2006), who 9/11 wrote a controversial book criticising Islam.
It is linked to the International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA).
The Association has handed out prizes in 2007 and 2008 – noteworthy recipients in 2007 included Bat Ye’or and, in 2008, Filip Dewinter, Geert Wilders and Robert Spencer.
Armando Manocchia participated in the Counter Jihad Conference 2007 and 2008.
Its website remains active.
Chairman/Leader: Constant Kusters, since 2003
Party Secretary: Peter Van Egmond, since 2011
Treasurer and Chief Stewards: Michel Boerboom, since 2003
Founded in 1971, the Dutch People’s Union is a nazi and anti-Muslim party. It publishes Wij Europa (We Europe), a quarterly magazine, and claims 100 members. Its website features pictures and profiles of those who oppose it, as well as ‘training manuals’ and political cartoons.
The organisation has not held any events since 2016. However, it has previously held regular demonstrations against Islam across the country, though with very few participants.
It participated in local elections in Arnhem, Pumerend and Westland in 2014 but without any success.
Chairman: Bart Vanpachtenbeke
Action Leader, Flemish departments: Nick van Mieghem
Action Leader, Dutch departments: Florens van der Lkooi
Leader Voorpos Suid-Afrika: Henk van de Graaf
Founded 1976 in Flanders (Belgium) and 1978 in the Netherlands, Voorpost is a pan-Dutch nationalist and anti-Muslim organisation.
It has affiliated branches in the Netherlands, Flanders (Belgium) and South Africa.
The Dutch branch claims 20 members. It publishes the Laagland quarterly newsletter and the Flemish branch publishes the magazine Revolte.
Leader (Autonome Nationalisten): Christian Berteryan
Leader (Nationalistes Autonomes Wallonie): Stéphane Hemmeryckx
This is a tiny Flemish nazi group that has been active since the late 1990s.The last ‘general mobilisation’ of the movement – for an anti-Islamic demonstration in Holland organised by the Dutch nazi group NVU – in October 2015 mobilised just three Flemish nazis.
The ‘movement’ is linked to ‘Nation’, a small nazi party in French-speaking Belgium. Both share virulent anti-Muslim views and both have an aggressive reputation. Some activists have been prosecuted for racism and violence.
Despite its insignificance and lack of any structure the group has inspired some in the Walloon region to create the Nationalistes Autonomes Wallonie.
Leader: Victor Teodor Iovici
Founded on 20 June 1991, the Greater Romania Party (PRM) is the political-wing of the nationalist ‘Greater Romania’ movement.
It is a populist, ultra-nationalist party that positions itself strongly against ethnic Hungarians, Roma, Jews and Muslims.
PRM publishes the România Mare (1990-) weekly magazine.
Support for the party has waned over recent years. It took only 1.47% of the parliamentary vote in 2012 and 1.18% in 2016.
Founded in 2000, Noua Dreaptă is a nationalist far-right organisation in Romania and Moldova. In November 2015 it became a political party with branches in both countries and three other European nations. It is affiliated to Bloc Identitaire. The organisation claims that the new party will be “national, Christian and social” in its standpoint and will fight against the construction and expansion of mosques in Romania and for the unification with the Republic of Moldova.
In October 2017 five members of Noua Dreaptă were arrested at the National Opera House in Cluj-Napoca, Romania after disrupting a point in the performance in which a passage is sung in Arabic. The members sang “Wake up Romania” and “On a Romanian land will never rise a mosque!”
President: Pedro Pablo Peña 
Founded 2005 as a nazi, anti-immigrant party, the group has held demonstrations in Madrid against Islam and Peña has said “the problem is not immigration, but Muslim invasion.”
In 2013 the Spanish Supreme Court opened proceedings to decide whether to outlaw the party following its attack on a Catalan cultural centre. Those behind the attack were sentenced to four years in prison in January 2017, however, they soon filed an appeal with the constitutional court that stopped the imprisonment.
President: Manuel Canduela
Founded in 1995, Democracia Nacional was the first modern far-right party in Spain, supported by Le Pen’s National Front in France and created by former Nazi militants from CEDADE, a now defunct nazi group. Led since 2004 by Manuel Canduela, a former member of the nazi gang Acción Radical in Valencia and singer of the RAC band División 250.
In August 2017 Canduela stated on the DN site:
“It is only a matter of time and number that this conflict between Europe and Islam tears our continent in a bloody war if not solved already and there is only one solution: They must return home. Europe for the Europeans.”
President: Rafael Ripoll
Founded in 2002 as a populist and nationalist party. In the 2015 municipal elections the party gained seven council seats, though it has never had any national or regional representation.
The former president of the party is José Luis Roberto, who has famously stated: “La religión del Islam es un cáncer para la sociedad europea” (“Islam is a cancer to European society”).
The party has remained active throughout 2017.
Leader: Jimmie Åkesson, since 2005
Party Secretary: Richard Jomshof
Parliamentary group leader: Mattias Karlsson
Founded on 6 February 1988, the Sweden Democrats (SD) is a populist, nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim party. It adopted an anti-Muslim stance in the late 1990s.
The SD has seen a surge in popularity in recent years, putting its membership at close to 25,000 in December 2016. In the 2014 election the SD received 12.9% of the vote, doubling their support and becoming the third-largest party.
The party has been caught up in several racism scandals. In 2010 it hosted a meeting on the threat of Islam addressed by the UK counter-jihad activist Alan Ayling (aka Alan Lake).
Temporary leader of the party in 2015, Björn Söder, stated that Jews and Saami people (indigenous to northern Scandinavia) were not Swedish.
One local leader of stated in 2014: “Many in the Middle East have a gene that makes them more violent.”
In October 2015 the party decided to close down a lot of its parliamentary activities and instead launch a nationwide campaign demanding a referendum on the migration issue.
As a part of this campaign, both Kent Ekeroth and Ted Ekeroth gave speeches warning against the mass invasion of immigrants, especially Muslims.
As a reaction to the 2017 terrorist attack on the Manchester Arena in the UK, Richard Jomshof, the party’s secretary, published a picture of a Trojan Horse with the word “Islam” written on it in front of a wall with the words “The West” above its gate.
In a speech to members of the party in September 2017, ahead of upcoming church elections, Mattias Karlsson (head of the party group in Parliament) stated: “Reading from the Quran in a Christian church… is almost like reading from Mein Kampf in a synagogue”.
The party is currently the third largest in Sweden according to opinion polls. As it looks now neither of the existing party coalitions will be able to form a government without the support of the Sweden democrats after the elections in 2018.
Leader: Marc Abramsson (sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for assault and rioting in Stockholm in 2003)
Founded October 2001 as a breakaway from the Sweden Democrats (SD), the National Democrats (ND) was a populist, anti-immigration, antisemitic and anti-Muslim party.
In 2001 it ran an ‘Islam in Sweden – Jihad against the People’s Homes’ campaign and claimed to be the first party in Sweden to warn of the dangers of Islam.
The party disbanded in April 2014.
President: Albert Rösti
Vice President: Céline Amaudruz, Oskar Freysinger, Thomas Aeschi
Member in Federal Council: Ueli Maurer, Guy Parmelin
Founded 23 December 1936 originally as the Bauern-Gewerbe-und Bürgerpartei (BGB), it was renamed the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) on 22 September 1971.
The SVP is a populist, nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim party. It has used direct democracy in its campaign against the supposed Islamisation of Switzerland. It led a campaign against the construction of new minarets in Switzerland which was endorsed in a national referendum in November 2009.
In 2011 the SVP polled 26.6% in national elections, slightly down on the 28.9% it obtained in 2007. However, it remained the largest party in Switzerland. A June 2015 poll put the SVP as the most widely backed political force in Switzerland, with the support of over 26% of voters ahead of the autumn elections.
In 2017 the SVP put forward a number of proposals concerning Islam, including the demand that imams be surveilled and that they should stop providing pastoral care in the army and prisons.
Alexander Segert
Segert is the architect of many of the most provocative anti-Muslim and racist posters produced for the Swiss People’s Party. Born in Hamburg, Germany, Segert moved to Switzerland after finishing university.
He first worked as a journalist for the conservative Schweizerzeit newspaper and later for the anti-Islamic newspaper Bürger und Christ (Citizens and Christ).
He now manages public relations for the SVP based in Dübendorf near Zurich.
In 2007 he created a poster depicting three sheep on a Swiss flag kicking away a single black sheep with the words “create safety”. He was also the designer of the poster that accompanied the national referendum against minarets, which depicted a woman wearing a burka alongside several rockets.
He created a video game, called Bye Bye Mosque, for the Austrian Freedom Party’s election campaign in 2011.
Leader: Gerard Batten
Founder: Alan Sked
Though harbouring some elements of anti-Islamic sentiment, UKIP was launched as a single-issue Eurosceptic party in September 1993, pushing for Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.
The party developed a broader policy platform and began to embrace anti-immigration and more anti-Muslim attitudes under its most popular leader, Nigel Farage, who was elected in 2006 (a post he would hold till 2009 and again from 2010-2016). Farage increasingly pushed anti-Muslim sentiment into the mainstream: for example, calling for a burqa ban in 2010, claiming it was a symbol of an “increasingly divided Britain”. A policy to ban the burqa in public buildings and some private buildings went on to become part of the 2010 UKIP General Election manifesto.
Numerous UKIP members and candidates have exhibited anti-Muslim attitudes. UKIP’s former leader Lord Pearson (who led the party between Farage’s two terms) declared in a 2013 parliamentary debate in 2013: “We see Sharia law running de facto in our land and we see [their] birth rate which is several times ours,” or in 2014 when Enfield Town candidate William Henwood stated that “Islam reminds me of the 3rd Reich”.
With the election of Paul Nuttal as UKIP leader in November 2016, UKIP’s anti-Muslim platform became more pronounced and was evident in the party’s 2017 integration agenda. This reiterated the intention to ban the burqa but looked to ban new Islamic schools, introduce annual mandatory genital examination of girls deemed “from groups at high risk” of suffering female genital mutilation, and make race or religion an aggravating factor in the prosecution of so-called ‘grooming gangs’. Such policies appalled many of the moderate figures within the party, some of whom have now distanced themselves from UKIP.
Anti-Muslim activist Anne Marie Waters ran in the 2017 leadership election, becoming a lightning rod for anti-Muslim elements within the party, although she came second place to the more moderate Henry Bolton and ultimately broke off to form her own anti-Muslim party, For Britain.
However Bolton’s short-lived leadership ended in disaster following personal scandals, and founding UKIP member Gerard Batten MEP became leader early in 2018. Batten is a has made numerous Islamophobic statements (for example calling Islam a “death cult, born and steeped in 14,000 years of violence an bloodshed”).
Leader: Adam Walker
Founder: John Tyndall (Chairman: National Front, 1972-1974 and 1975-1980 and BNP, 1982-1999)
Founded in April 1982 through a merger of the New National Front (NNF) and members of other far-right organisations, the BNP is a fascist, populist, nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim party. It is run by a 20-strong Advisory Council (AC).
The BNP publishes the The Voice of Freedom (February 2000-) newspaper and the magazine Identity.
While it is a traditional far-right party, it has increasingly sought to make political capital out of anti-Muslim stances. The BNP launched a campaign against Islam in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, characterised as the ‘New Crusade for the survival of western civilisation and an attempt to counter the Islamisation of Britain’.
Anti-Muslim rhetoric is now a common feature within its literature, rather than its traditional and more general anti-immigrant stance. More recently it backed a Pegida UK rally in Newcastle in early 2015 and in May 2017 released a ‘Ten-Point Plan To Counter Islamist Terror’ which included banning the burqa and isolating the Muslim convict population into separate prisons.
At its peak the party boasted 55 councillors and gained 943,600 votes and two MEPs in the 2009 European elections. However, the BNP suffered a dramatic collapse in May 2010 after failing to breakthrough in the general election and losing all but two of its 28 councillors facing re-election. In the 2017 local elections, the BNP’s final councillor, Brian Parker, declined to stand for re-election.
A Reform Party candidate fantasised about deporting “millions” of British citizens to “rid itself of the foreign plague we have been diseased with”. UPDATE: Reform…
