Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has announced that Budapest will follow the lead of U.S. President Donald Trump in banning the far-left Antifa group as a terrorist organisation.
On Friday, Prime Minsiter Orbán said that his government “will take steps to designate Antifa as a terrorist organisation in Hungary.”
“We applaud President Donald Trump for taking the lead, calling them what they are: terrorists,” the populist-nationalist leader added.
While Antifa is often defended as merely being “anti-fascists”, their name actually originates from Antifaschistische Aktion, the paramilitary wing of the German Communist Party (KPD) in the 1930s. In its latest incarnation, Antifa has become an advocate for an anarcho-style communism with a ‘by any means necessary’ ethos.
The loosely-nit collective often engages in street violence against police and supposed “fascists” throughout the Western world. It has also been suspected of being involved in the widespread infrastructure sabotage movement across Europe, including communications networks, railway lines, and even the German armed forces.
In his announcement, Orbán highlighted an Antifa attack in 2023, during which they allegedly used hammers to attack a group of supposed far-right attendees of a memorial for the Nazi Waffen SS soldiers and Hungarian allied troops who fought the Soviet Union’s Red Army during the Siege of Budapest during World War II.
One of those allegedly involved in the attack, Ilaria Salis, was initially placed under house arrest in Hungary. However, she was later freed after being elected to the European Parliament in her native Italy, which provided her immunity from prosecution.
The case is expected to come to a head over the next few weeks, with the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee set to vote on Tuesday on whether to revoke her immunity. Should the motion pass, it would be put before the European Parliament as a whole for a vote on October 7th.
Other European nations have been taking action against Antifa in recent months, with the French government announcing in May that it would launch proceedings to ban the La Jeune Garde Antifasciste (The Young Anti-Fascist Guard).
The Lyon-based group has frequently been accused of engaging in violent tactics, including its former leader Raphaël Arnault, who was elected to the French National Assembly last year for the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI/France in Revolt) party of radical Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives in the Netherlands this week also voted in favour of designating Antifa as a terrorist organisation after the urging of populist Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders.
The motion was introduced by Forum for Democracy chief Thierry Baudet, who Antifa has physically attacked with a glass bottle. Commenting on the motion, Baudet said: “Enough is enough! The violent and criminal terrorist organisation that is Antifa, with chapters all over the world, will finally be OUTLAWED in the Netherlands. This is just the beginning.”
It comes after President Donald Trump announced earlier this week that his administration would classify Antifa as a terror organisation in the wake of the assassination of Turning Ponit USA founder Charlie Kirk. The suspected killer, Tyler Robinson, is alleged to have written Antifa slogans on the bullets in the believed murder weapon.
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