Sweden: Violent far -right groups recruit boys just 10 years old

After Donald Trump’s swearing -in in January, the world’s leading adviser and richest man in the world, Elon Musk, He greeted twice in fascist style.

This Nazi greeting is imitated by many children in Värmland schools in Western Sweden, which is concerned.

« They don’t do it as a kind of tribute to Hitler – they do it because Musk did it, » says sociologist Lars Stiernelöf, to the Guardian, who works to combat violent extremism in the County where the Swedish Nazi Party was founded 100 years ago.

There is, he adds, « great attention around Musk’s greeting », which some boys consider « a little cool ».

Although he says that the number of children engaged in this behavior is small and in no way sovereign, it is proof of the need for timely intervention in the recruitment of young boys in far -right groups.

« It’s a violent message and it can also be very serious if they get carried away. It must be taken seriously. « 

Alarming report on far -right groups

Right -wing extremism has long been in Sweden, but – as in other parts of Europe and the US – a dramatic change in dominant groups, structure, activities and recruitment has been observed in recent years.

The number of active teams in the Swedish far -right has been at the highest level since 2008, according to a new Expo report, a Swedish Institute of Racism. After several years of decline, last year there was an increase in the number of groups that « attract a new generation of young men who have lost their faith in democracy ».

Violence, the report says, plays an increasingly important role – « both rhetorical and real acts of violence ».

Sweden’s largest neo -Nazi group, the Scandinavian Resistance Movement (known in Sweden as Nordiska Motståndsrörelsen or NMR), is not the power it once. Its activities were largely influenced by its designation as a US terrorist group last year, which means that all its US -based assets were committed and excluded from the US financial system. He was also influenced by changes in leadership and struggled to recruit younger men through an aging member.

But in her shade there has been a plethora of young, smaller, more flexible and, for many, more invisible groups, using racist mimics and violent videos to fish new members on platforms such as Tiktok before the discussion is transferred to other private platforms.

Targeting extremist vulnerable children

Among the most successful is Aktivklubb Sverige, which acts as a bomb organization in Sweden for five smaller groups across the country, including White Boys Stockholm.

The domestic Gym XIV, which focuses on physical practice and preparation for violence, has also played a key role in the development of the Swedish active club movement.

Both Aktivklubb and Gym XIV have developed extensive international ties throughout Europe and the US – Aktivklubb is part of the international Active Club network founded in 2020 by US far -right extremist Robert Rundo.

Stiernelöf, who works for Agera Värmland, a team that helps people abandon violent extremism, says that one of the most notable changes is how the age of those attracted has fallen sharply. Some of the boys recruited, he says, are now only 10 years old.

The other remarkable change is the profile of the types of people who are attracted. « Ten to 15 years ago, they were strong, expressive guys who wanted to look, » he says. « Today, these are new, vulnerable types that often spend their time online and may lose social contact. This is a very big difference. « 

This change, he adds, is also evident in the types of men « lonely perpetrators » involved in terrorist acts and mass violence. In February, an armed man killed 10 people, most of whom had an immigration background, in an Educational Center in Örebro before committing suicide. Although the perpetrator’s motive is not known, it was a « classic lonely perpetrator, » says Stiernelöf.

In the country’s political scene

Increasing members of violent far -right groups is not the case in the vacuum. The far -right Swedish Democrats won the second largest number of seats in the 2022 general elections after accusing immigration of gang crime. Their leader, Jimmie Åkesson, has also spoken in favor of Folkutbyte, the far -right conspiracy theory of « great replacement ».

Deje is a relatively small community of a few thousand residents in Värmland, but in recent years it has become a center of far -right activity. Overlooking a river, among wooden houses painted in traditional colors and above a car workshop, is the Swedish headquarters of white haramerskins. The American Nazi group has been banned in Germany, but in DeJE it was treated with a « tense acceptance » by the community, Stiernelöf says.

« I think (our success) is because people do not believe that other parties are taking their situation seriously, » the far -right leader in Sweden Jimmy Aceson has said, « 

Although its members are relatively small – they are estimated at eight to ten people, mainly men aged 40 and 50 – the venue has become a meeting place for other far -right groups, including NMR, and an international pilgrimage for groups such as Proud Boys, who visited last summer.

In the center of Deje, near the grocery store and on the community’s football stadium used by the children of the area, there is the space that until recently was the Gym XIV Club. Until it was demolished by local authorities, it was used for about a year and a half, says Stiernelöf, with a fight cage being visible from the outside.

Where the team is located now, the team is not known, but it is believed to be relatively close. These clubs focus on violence – training for what they claim to be an upcoming racial war.

With the flag of… “White Genocide”

« They are white young men. They talk a lot about the « genocide of white », about « White Lives Matter ». They see a threat to the power of the white man, « he says. Standards include Manosphere figures, such as Andrew Tate and Marcus Follin, a Swedish white nationalist YouTuber known as « Gold », whose Instagram is full of bodybuilding photos.

In addition to racism, hatred in these far -right groups also turns against LGBTKI+ people and women

The family life of those recruited is « very mixed, » he says. But the trademark a warning sign for vulnerability is those who are intruders and do not feel that they belong.

Trump’s re -election reinforced the far -right in Sweden, says Stiernelöf, even among those who are not Trump’s open supporters, because there is a sense that « we have a leader in the White House that supports our issue ».

At the Expo’s office in Stockholm, researcher Jonathan Lehman says that far -right groups « now feel closer to mainstream » – partly because of Trump.

« The previous government saw the global move of far -right extremism as a threat.

« The Trump administration, he says, » sends the opposite messages « with MSK’s public support to far -right groups and » the expression of support for the core of far -right ideology « .

The NMR, he says, has even expressed the hope that his designation as a US terrorist organization could be revoked.

In its latest annual report, Säpo, the Swedish security agency, sketches a worrying picture of how the overlap of active clubs and online radicalization could lead to increased violence in the future.

Growing phenomenon in Europe

He warned that terrorist groups use digital platforms and game environment to reach newer target groups to radicalize and mobilize them at an accelerated pace. « The Security Service is handling cases involving children who have not even reached adolescence, » the report said, with young people « often attracted to violence as an ideology ».

He adds: « In addition to the online problem, active clubs in the context of right -wing extremism is also a growing phenomenon in Europe that mainly attracts young people. »

Violent extremism, replacement movements and conspiracy theories are overlapping in a way that is in danger of making violence more frequently with ideological motives, he warns. « Increased polarization in Sweden could mean increased acceptance of threats, hatred and violence, while at the same time creating a suitable ground for violent extremism. »

A former member of the far -right teams in Sweden for 10 years, who spoke to the Observer on the condition of anonymity, was involved before he was 13. He abandoned the movement a few years ago, but initially attracted the « narrow community. It was fine. « 

The movement has changed dramatically in recent years, he said, than being relatively public, has more secrecy. « Today the movement is very fluid, not so open, but with a lot of propaganda outward online. It is very organized, very tight and tied to it. But the outside have a much less picture of how it works, how it reacts and who the protagonists are. «