Anti-Vaccination Militancy Amongst the Western Far-Right
Author(s): Mohamed Hineidi — Director at EMAN
As parts of Europe descend into another lockdown following a deadly fourth wave of COVID-19 infections, the far-right looks for further opportunities to exploit collective frustration at lockdowns to target governments and gain new recruits. The partial lockdowns across certain European countries allow for people to leave their homes, thus allowing demonstrations and protests with tens of thousands of people to take place. In certain countries, far-right political parties and organisations have begun taking steps to infiltrate and hijack what were once apolitical anti-vaccination movements and protests. Vaccine hesitancy has always existed across virtually every society and country around the world, but now as governments limit movements, impose restrictions, and in some cases suspend workers who refuse to be vaccinated – most far-right extremist organisations around the world are now using the pandemic as “proof” that the government is attempting to control their lives and curtail their personal freedoms.
The logic of anti-vaxxers around the world ranges from scientific scepticism to political beliefs – with the latter often being linked directly to a lack of trust in government institutions. Far-right extremists, therefore, have relied on the argument that no trust can be placed on their respective governments, and have used this logic to galvanise new recruits and exploit anti-vaccination movements – many of which are not motivated by any form of extremism – to further their agenda. For instance, members of Italy’s Forza Nuova – an extreme right-wing political party led a violent protest of thousands of people in a plaza in Rome in October 2021, resulting in the rampage and looting of a left-leaning labour union building, and an attack on a hospital that left scores of nurses and police officers seriously injured.
Austria, which witnessed one of the worst outbreaks across Europe towards the end of 2021 also saw a recent shift in its anti-vaccination movement being infiltrated by far-right elements. An estimated forty thousand people protestors descended across Vienna in November 2021, with the protest being organised and led by the far-right Freedom Party, the third biggest political party in Austria. Like their Italian far-right counterparts and other far-right COVID-19 sceptics across the Western World, Austrian experts claim that the Freedom Party has exploited the pandemic to further its anti-establishment credentials and re-establish public support.
Even as far as New Zealand, anti-vaccination protestors there have at times been led by right-wing populists. A case in point is a recent protest in Auckland led by Christian fundamentalist pastor, and right-wing figure, Brain Tamaki. According to an NBC News article on right-wing infiltration in New Zealand’s anti-vaccination movement, Brain Tamaki – who was arrested multiple times for defying court orders and breaking public health laws during lockdown – led protests tinged with far-right themes, with New Zealand security analysts stating that those protests included the importation of U.S. populist messaging including “Trumpist-style rhetoric, basic racism towards non-whites and verbal attacks against government officials”.
Anti-vaccine hesitation has, in some parts of the world, led to vaccine resistance. This resistance is a broader movement against general opposition to other government policies that right-wing and far-right movements have often cited, including migration, isolationism and the role of minorities. This resistance to certain government policies has, at times, led to violent opposition against government institutions – epitomised in the Western world in the January 2021 attacks against the U.S. Capitol building. Anti-Government Extremism in the Western world today is overwhelmingly dominated by far-right movements that question the legitimacy of their respective centre and centre-left elected governments, and in some cases openly engage in violence against authorities, and certain segments of society.
