Right-wing Extremism in the Nordic Countries : Analysing Threat Assessments by the Security Police

Abstract

The right-wing extremism (RWE) milieu in the Nordic region is arguably becoming increasingly transnational in nature. Nordic groups, networks, and individuals have been inspired by global narratives and have followed their foreign idols. In this chapter, we explore the threat landscape and relevant groups and actors primarily of security police reports from four Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The reports were studied following the changing threat assessments caused, among other things, by COVID-19 and most recently by the war in Ukraine. We look into which organisations and actors have been considered most relevant in each country, which kind of activities are expected to cause a threat, and how these threats link to the pan-Nordic movement and also to international far-right activism. The analysis is supplemented with recent academic literature on right-wing extremism in the Nordic countries.