Rise Of The Far-Right Millennials

Right-wing nationalists are on the march in Europe and the US. But if you’re picturing men with shaved heads, think again. Polly Dunbar meets the young British women drawn to the extreme edge of politics.

I’m on the Strand in London, watching 300 men and women wave St George’s Cross flags and chant ‘terrorist scum off our streets’. They’re members of Britain First, a far-right political party founded from the ashes of the BNP. Along with the English Defence League (EDL), the party is using the Westminster attack a few days earlier as an opportunity to ‘march against terror’. Witnessing the presence of a group who want a ban on Islam in the UK is shocking. Even more so is the sight of young women in their ranks and, at the helm, Britain First’s deputy leader, 31-year-old Jayda Fransen (pictured left). This woman describes Islam as a ‘cancer of the world’ and has proclaimed ‘there is no such thing as a “moderate” Muslim’.

Stepping outside my liberal London bubble, in which my views – pro-Europe, inclusive – are echoed by my friends and colleagues, I want to understand why increasing numbers of millennial women are attracted to far-right politics.

Many nationalist parties are experiencing a resurgence across Europe. In the Netherlands, Italy, Denmark and Sweden, far-right parties have thrived; while in France, Marine Le Pen, leader of the anti-immigration Front National soared in popularity to become a strong contender in May’s presidential election. She may not have won, but still, 10.6 million people voted for her. Her niece, the former MP Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, is even more hardline: she has said, ‘Either we kill Islamism or it will kill us again and again.’