Dressed in black T-shirts, their arms inked with tattoos, Fabrizio and Mameli Gamberini are on their yearly homage trip to Predappio, the birth town and burial place of Benito Mussolini.
“We’re fascists,” Mameli proudly admits as she leaves Predappio Tricolore, a souvenir shop teeming with Mussolini memorabilia, on Friday morning. “We come every year at the end of July to buy a few new keepsakes, visit his tomb and leave some flowers in his honour.”
Continue reading...Absent from parliament, Italy’s deputy PM says his party did not ask for or take money
Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has avoided an interrogation in parliament over claims his far-right League party sought money from Russia.
In Salvini’s absence, the allegations were addressed by the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, who said no evidence had emerged to diminish the trust he had “in all members of the government”.
Continue reading...Critics question judgment of Georg Maaßen for spreading ‘lies and extremist agitation’
When he was in charge of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, Hans-Georg Maaßen warned of how easy it was for people to be led astray by “disinformation” and “clumsy fake reports” on the internet.
But since his dismissal from office last September, the former spy chief’s behaviour on social media has raised questions over his own ability to distinguish conspiracy theories from truthful reporting, and sparked a debate about the neutrality of the powerful intelligence agency during a period in which a resurgent far right marched over several days in the city of Chemnitz.
Continue reading...Far-right activist will serve 10 weeks after being found guilty of breaching reporting ban
Tommy Robinson has been given a nine-month prison sentence – of which he will serve about 10 weeks – after he was found guilty of contempt of court at an earlier hearing.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, broadcast reports that encouraged “vigilante action” and “unlawful physical” aggression against defendants in a sexual exploitation trial, according to the judges who found him guilty last week.
Continue reading...The captain of an NGO rescue ship carrying 42 migrants has been arrested after more than two weeks in a standoff with Italian authorities. Carola Rackete reached Sicily on Saturday in defiance of a ban by the country’s far-right deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini. She was greeted by lengthy applause from hundreds of people who arrived on the quay to support her
A federal judge imposed a life sentence on the self-described neo-Nazi who killed Heather Heyer by crashing his car into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, after a white supremacist rally, saying release would be “too great a risk”.
The 22-year-old neo-Nazi, James Fields of Maumee, Ohio, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. He had sought a lesser sentence, apologizing after the court viewed video of him plowing his car into a crowd after the 12 August 2017 Unite the Right rally, also injuring 19 people.
Continue reading...Activists linked to military and police suspected of preparing terror attack, reports say
A group of German rightwing extremists compiled a “death list” of leftwing and pro-refugee targets by accessing police records, then stockpiled weapons and ordered body bags and quicklime to kill and dispose of their victims, German media have reported, citing intelligence sources.
Germany’s general prosecutor had been investigating Nordkreuz (Northern Cross) since August 2017 on the suspicion the group was preparing a terrorist attack.
Continue reading...Investigation widens to include Martin Sellner’s fiancee Brittany Pettibone following her contact with Australian far-right figure Blair Cottrell
The Austrian identitarian leader, Martin Sellner, has been subjected to further searches by Austrian police in connection with the Christchurch shooter, according to Austrian media reports and videos on Sellner’s own YouTube channel.
The investigation has also reportedly widened to include Sellner’s US-based fiancee, Brittany Pettibone, and her own alleged connections with Australian far-right figure Blair Cottrell.
Continue reading...The self-avowed white supremacist who plowed his car into counter-protesters opposing a white nationalist rally in Virginia two years ago, killing one and injuring dozens, has asked a judge for mercy and a sentence shorter than life in prison.
Lawyers for James Alex Fields Jr, 22, said in a sentencing memo submitted in court documents on Friday the defendant should not spend his entire life in prison because of his age, a traumatic childhood and a history of mental illness.
Continue reading...Chancellor warns against losing credibility after arrest over murder of Walter Lübcke
Angela Merkel has said Germany must rigorously fight rightwing extremism after the murder of a prominent politician.
The arrest of a man with suspected far-right sympathies over the shooting this month of Walter Lübcke, a regional ally of Merkel known for his pro-migrant views, shocked Germany and prompted calls for a more proactive government response to anti-immigrant extremists.
Continue reading...Email warns recent murder of Walter Lübcke was first in a line of ‘upcoming purges’
Several German politicians who have publicly stood up for refugees have received death threats since what police are treating as the alleged politically motivated murder of one of Angela Merkel’s party allies.
An email sent to politicians and media organisations across the country on Tuesday night warned that the alleged murder of the Christian Democratic Union politician Walter Lübcke, allegedly by a man linked to the far right, was the first in a line of “upcoming purges” and called for terror attacks on left-leaning politicians, refugees and Jews in Germany.
Continue reading...Actors and directors called on Görlitz voters to not succumb to far-right party’s ‘hate and enmity’
A 51-year-old immigrant has been elected mayor of a town in eastern Germany after beating a candidate from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in a campaign that drew international attention.
Octavian Ursu, a classical musician who came to Germany from Romania in 1990s, stood for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union party, receiving 55.1% of the vote in Sunday’s election in Goerlitz. Preliminary returns showed his AfD opponent, Sebastian Wippel, an ex-policeman received 44.9%.
Continue reading...Victory is latest in a string of legal actions by Matt Furie, who is seeking to halt the co-option of his cartoon by the far right
Matt Furie, the cartoonist behind the character and online meme Pepe the Frog, has won a $15,000 (£12,000) settlement against website Infowars and its creator, the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, over use of the anthropomorphic frog in far-right imagery.
Pepe first appeared as a character in 2005 in Furie’s comic Boy’s Club, in which the “peaceful frog-dude” and his animal housemates got up to various college hijinks. His image quickly became a meme on MySpace, and later the anonymous message board 4chan, before it was co-opted by the US “alt-right” in the early 2010s.
Continue reading...Rallies and protests organized by Mark Sahady have often been small, with attendees vastly outnumbered by opposing groups
Far-right figures associated with a “straight pride” parade in Boston have celebrated the story going “viral” in news media, but with no fixed date and no city permit granted the likely size of the event and chances of it going ahead remain unclear.
Related: 'Straight pride' group removes Brad Pitt as mascot after backlash
Continue reading...Danes follow Nordic trend away from populism but leader Mette Frederiksen could struggle to form coalition
Voters appear to have returned the third left-leaning government in a year to the Nordic region as Denmark’s Social Democrats claimed victory in parliamentary elections with 25.9% of the vote.
The centre-left party finished clear of the centre-right Liberals of outgoing prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who improved on their 2015 score to reach 23.4%, and the populist, far-right Danish People’s party (DPP), which plunged to 8.7% – less than half its tally in the last election.
Continue reading...Social Democrats expected to return to power this week after backing once far-right policies
Tacking left on welfare and right on immigration looks likely to pay off for Denmark’s Social Democrats, who are widely expected to return to power this week as voters desert the centre-right government and the far right.
A poll this weekend predicted the centre-left party, led by Mette Frederiksen, will be the country’s largest with about 27% of the national vote after the election on Wednesday, while the “red bloc” of left-leaning parties it leads is on course for more than 55%.
Continue reading...Gianmarco Negri was elected in small town of Tromello, beating far-right League candidate
Italy’s first transgender mayor has said the “arrogant and oppressive” politics of the far right would sooner or later be overcome by a “kindness revolution”.
Gianmarco Negri, a 40-year-old lawyer, was elected mayor of Tromello, a small town south of Milan, last week. Capturing 37.5% of the vote, his leftwing platform scored him a clear victory over the candidate for the far-right League, who came second with 26%.
Continue reading...The US president gives comfort to the far right. The prime minister should speak truth to power
Praising the “very fine people on both sides” when torch-wielding white supremacists and antisemites marched through the streets clashing with anti-racist campaigners. Threatening to veto a ban on the use of rape as a weapon of war. Setting an immigration policy that forcefully separates young children from their parents at the border. The deliberate use of xenophobia, racism and “otherness” as an electoral tactic. Introducing a travel ban to a number of predominately Muslim countries. Lying deliberately and repeatedly to the public.
No, these are not the actions of European dictators of the 1930s and 40s. Nor the military juntas of the 1970s and 80s. I’m not talking about Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong-un. These are the actions of the leader of our closest ally, the president of the United States of America. This is a man who tried to exploit Londoners’ fears following a horrific terrorist attack on our city, amplified the tweets of a British far-right racist group, denounced as fake news robust scientific evidence warning of the dangers of climate change, and is now trying to interfere shamelessly in the Conservative party leadership race by backing Boris Johnson because he believes it would enable him to gain an ally in Number 10 for his divisive agenda.
Continue reading...Call for solidarity follows warning that Jews wearing cap face abuse and attacks
Germans of all faiths and none are being urged to wear kippah skullcaps on Saturday as a symbol of solidarity with the Jewish community, after a steep rise in antisemitic attacks.
Protests across the country have been called by the government’s antisemitism ombudsman after he triggered a heated debate when he warned Jews last week not to wear the kippah because of the increasing likelihood of being attacked.
Continue reading...Government ‘unwilling’ to engage with financing of extremists, says Whitehall thinktank
An “unwillingness” by the UK government to engage with the threat posed by far-right extremists is creating a vacuum in which such groups can flourish, according to a study by a Whitehall thinktank of their fundraising activities.
The report warns that the focus placed on Islamists has meant that counter-terrorist authorities tasked with looking into financing have made little attempt to understand how far-right individuals and groups raise funds.
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