“Facade politics” is making far-right ideas acceptable: AIVD

Far-right organisations are using euphemistic terms such as “remigration” to establish racist and discriminatory ideas in mainstream debate, the Dutch security services have warned.

The intelligence agency AIVD and the national counter-terrorism co-ordinator said “façade politics” was designed to mask extremist ideas by expressing them in more palatable language.

Groups such as White Lives Matter, the Active Club Dietsland and the Greater Netherlands Student Union (GNSV) had emerged in the last 10 years under the banner of “identitarian resistance”, itself a euphemism for white supremacism.

“In reality many identitarians are convinced of ‘white superiority’ and show an aversion to other cultures and religions, as well as white people who think differently such as feminists and LGBTI+ people,” the agencies said.

Far-right groups are also infiltrating demonstrations against asylum seeker centres, organising international conferences and influencing political parties.

The right-wing parties JA21, Forum voor Democratie, Geert Wilders’ PVV and the the BoerBurgerBeweging took 30% of the vote between them in last October’s general election. All used the term “remigration” in their election manifestos.

Weekend riots

The report was published after a weekend in which 300 people gathered for an anti-immigration protest in The Hague organised by a group calling itself Wij Zijn Het Volk (“We are the people”).

Protesters made Nazi salutes, chanted anti-Semitic slogans and carried banners with messages such as “blanke mannen vooraan” (white men first).

The demonstration was cancelled after rioters clashed with police who ordered them to remove their face masks. Altogether 24 people were arrested. It was the second year in a row that an anti-immigration demonstration on the city’s Malieveld triggered violent confrontations with police.

The AIVD estimates that “several hundred Dutch people” are involved in right-wing terrorist activity and there is a real chance that some will resort to actual violence.

But they also said the groups were at undermining the democratic system “by stealth”, using social media platforms such as TikTok and X to spread extremist ideas.

“The effect in the long term can be greater than a terrorist attack,” the report said.