European right-wing parties follow Trump’s call to label Antifa a terrorist organization

The “rightward shift” in the US under the Donald Trump administration has begun to find support in two European states and various political parties.

After Trump announced last Thursday that he wanted to classify the loosely-known coalition “Antifa” as a “terrorist organization,” the Dutch parliament asked its own government to do the same.

On Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also announced his intention to follow the US president’s lead. The same demands were voiced by the leaders of Belgium’s ruling party, the Reformist Movement (MR), and Alternative for Germany (AfD).

The Kirk assassination as a turning point in the US

The Trump administration has moved to suppress any criticism of conservative-right commentator Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated on September 10.

The president had TV host Jimmy Kimmel fired for speaking about Kirk’s murder, escalating the threat of removing other “liberal” media figures from the media.

Trump is suing a growing number of media outlets that produce critical reporting, including influential publications like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, for billions of dollars in damages and wants to prohibit the publication of any investigation related to the Pentagon that the government has not approved.

This would make it impossible to write critical articles about the US armed forces.

Trump’s friends in Europe take action

Last week, for the first time, two EU countries openly adopted one of Trump’s initiatives and announced their intention to incorporate it into their own legislation.

The plan is to classify anti-fascist organizations, particularly the “Antifa” movement, as terrorist organizations.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday that he was “pleased” with Trump’s announced plan, adding, “The time has come in Hungary to classify organizations like Antifa as terrorist groups, following the American model.”

In the capital, Budapest, anti-fascist organizations demonstrate against the annual commemorative march organized by fascists to honor the war fought by the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS against the Red Army.

On Thursday, at the request of right-wing politician Geert Wilders (PVV), the Dutch parliament had asked the government to also classify Antifa as a “terrorist organization.”

This was achieved with the votes of the ruling VVD party, of which NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is a member.

AfD also imitates Trump

Calls to ban anti-fascist organizations, or at least hinder their activities, are also being heard in other EU countries.

In Austria, for example, the FPÖ’s “security spokesman” Gernot Darmann, referring to Trump’s initiative, said, “This leftist swamp”—‘Antifa’—“must be drained.”

In Belgium, the president of the ruling MR party, Georges-Louis Bouchez, called for the official dissolution of the “Antifa structure,” following Trump’s example.

Bouchez announced that his party would work toward this “at the government and parliamentary level” and openly accused Antifa of being “a structure that uses fascist methods.”

In Germany, AfD politicians are demanding that the anti-fascist movement be classified as “terrorist.” Members of the AfD in the European Parliament proposed this years ago as part of their parliamentary activities.

Now, for instance, AfD Member of the Federal Parliament Alexander Wolf stated on social media, “Donald Trump wants to take action against Antifa. … Very good!”

Wolf’s party colleague Dario Seifert also noted on social media that Trump’s plan “should be a model for Germany and Europe as well,” and said, “Classify Antifa as a terrorist group!”

AfD is the leading party in the polls

The AfD has entered a period where it is achieving record results in polls and is increasingly being discussed in coalition talks.

In a YouGov poll published on September 17, it surpassed the CDU/CSU for the first time, ranking first with 27% (CDU/CSU: 26%).

In an INSA poll published on September 20, the AfD (26%) was also ahead of the CDU and CSU (25%). The SPD lagged far behind at 15%.

In the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD is currently polling at 39%, and the party’s state leader, Ulrich Siegmund, aims to form a single-party government after the state elections next September.

In local elections held a week ago in three major cities of the populous western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia—Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen, and Hagen—AfD candidates advanced to the second round of the mayoral elections to be held this Sunday.

The CDU may pull bricks from the “firewall” against the AfD

At the same time, discussions about the AfD’s potential inclusion in a ruling coalition, possibly even at the federal level, are intensifying.

The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (faz), which is close to the Union parties, reported that there are politicians in the CDU and CSU, including “leading” ones, who privately express the view that the AfD cannot be ignored in the long term, at least on organizational matters such as the distribution of committee chairmanships.

Two weeks ago, CDU federal executive board member Carina Hermann stated at an executive board meeting that if the SPD does not support desired social cuts, “other majorities” might be possible in the Bundestag.

Karl-Josef Laumann, the Social Affairs Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and a federal vice-chairman, did not respond with the usual cool statement that a majority relying on the AfD is unthinkable in the Union parties. Instead, Laumann implied he did not rule out this scenario, warning, “Many would leave [the party], and so would I.”

Incitement to violence across the Canal

The “rightward shift” in Europe is not solely born from Europe’s internal dynamics; the Trump administration and its political circle are also actively promoting it.

For example, Trump’s former advisor Elon Musk supported a march in London on September 13, attended by nearly 150,000 far-right individuals, with a video address.

In his speech, Musk not only called for the dissolution of parliament and a change of government in the United Kingdom but also claimed that with rising immigration, “violence is at the door.”

Musk said, “It’s up to you whether you resort to violence, but violence is at your door. You either fight back or you die, that’s the reality.”