Identifying Common Patterns of Discourse and Strategy among the New Extremist Movements in Europe: The Case of the English Defence League and the Bloc Identitaire

ABSTRACT

The last decade has marked a significant change in the European political landscape: along with the electoral breakthrough of right-wing extremist/populist parties, there has been a re-emergence of the street extremist movement phenomenon with the creation of several groups that call for defence of the national identity of their respective countries. The UK and France both experienced this phenomenon through the creation of the English Defence League (EDL) in 2009, and through the rise of the ‘Bloc Identitaire’ in France. This article examines the characteristics of these groups and focuses on how European and state policies shape their discourses. I argue that regardless of their differences, the national context or the state policies, the new extremist movements share common patterns of discourse and I identify these.

KEYWORDS:

• Right-wing politics
• far right
• extremism
• islamophobia
• nationalism
• populism
• migration
• UK
• France

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Kevin Braouezec is a PhD candidate at the French Institute of Geopolitics (University Paris 8). His research focuses on extremism, new social movements, working classes and globalization. He studies the conditions and the factors for the emergence of the far-right vote across Europe and notably in East London.

Notes

1. This group was proscribed under the UK Terrorism Act 2000 on 14 January 2010 together with four other organisations.

2. PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident) is a German anti-Islamic political movement founded in Dresden in October 2014. Its UK branch is represented by the former EDL president and founder Tommy Robinson.

3. An operation that implied some members of the youth section of the Bloc called ‘générations identitaires’.

4. Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Laatvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

5. Following his election as prime minister in 2010, David Cameron announced his intention to lower net immigration to below hundreds of thousands a year. In 2015 five years after this commitment, this figure was over the three hundred thousand a year.

6. http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2014/08/06/sept-idees-recues-sur-l-immigration-et-les-immigres_4467506_4355770.html see this article published in Le Monde or this web page from the government http://www.gouvernement.fr/10-chiffres-qui-vont-vous-surprendre-sur-l-immigration-en-france.

7. https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3466/Perceptions-are-not-reality-Things-the-world-gets-wrong.aspx to read the full report.

8. Anjem Choudary is a British Muslim social and political activist. He regularly preaches for the establishment of Sharia law in the UK on national television shows.

9. http://lci.tf1.fr/politique/grosse-gene-entre-najat-vallaud-belkacem-et-un-musulman-normal-8709589.html