With the end of the Pnos, the right-wing extremist scene loses its partisan arm. However, this does not weaken the milieu – on the contrary: the radicalization could even increase, says the news service.
Right-wing extremist party in Switzerland: Pnos activists at a demonstration in Basel, surrounded by the police.
The Pnos has been the best-known right-wing extremist group in Switzerland for the past two decades. In the 2000s, she even got a seat on the city council in Langenthal, making headlines. But not much has been heard from Pnos for years. At the beginning of the year, the National Oriented Swiss Party, as it is called, was dissolved. The “Blick” reported this week on a letter in which the current President announced the end and “a new chapter” announced.
Those familiar with the right-wing extremist milieu are not surprised. The party had been in a de facto comatose state for a long time, they say. The Lucerne journalist Hans Stutz, who has been observing the scene for years, explains to the NZZ that several sections have been inactive in recent years and that the number of active people has decreased. In 2015, the Federal Office of Police assumed 250 members, but recently the number may have been significantly lower.
For Dirk Baier from the Institute for Delinquency and Crime Prevention at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), a party-political commitment for a younger generation is simply no longer up-to-date: “With the end of the Pnos, a form of action will die out, but not the ideology.”
Boost for the new right
Founded in 2000, Pnos emerged from the Nazi skin movement and, in the early years, was openly oriented towards the national-völkisch attitude of the National Socialists, as Stutz explains. This was reflected in the first party program, which referred directly to the racial laws of the “Third Reich.”
In 2007, the group caused horror when they shouted down the then Federal Councilor Samuel Schmid on the Rütli and gave the Hitler salute. And last year, two leaders were convicted for publishing excerpts from the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” in their party newspaper – one of the worst anti-Semitic hoaxes used by the Nazis to justify the Holocaust.
In the meantime, this form of right-wing extremism is being pushed back by a new trend. The so-called New Right received a boost. She presents herself as modern, avoids all too direct references to the National Socialists, but pursues an ideology that is no less racist and anti-democratic, as Baier explains. The identitarian ideology from which the New Right emerges is also based on the conviction that nations must preserve their “cultural identity”.
In Switzerland, it is primarily the Junge Tat organization that belongs to the New Right. She tries to mobilize via social networks and to attract attention with small and spontaneous actions. It spreads xenophobia and racist messages via Telegram and other channels. Fundraising is done in a timely manner in cryptocurrency. And she cultivates a physicality reminiscent of the Nazi “Strength through Joy” movement. “Ultimately, it is our body that represents the mind, indeed our inner health,” advertises Junge Tat on its website. Stutz also assigns the French-speaking Swiss Résistance Helvétique to this movement.
radicalization in silence
According to the Federal Intelligence Service (NDB), the changes in the scene are currently exceeding normal. The disintegration of an organization leaves individual violent right-wing extremists without ties to a group. They usually quickly joined other groups that exercise at least a certain degree of social control over their members and would thus be more likely to deter them from committing acts of violence, according to the security policy situation report of the FIS from 2021.
If individual exponents do not find a connection to a new group, there is a higher probability that they will quietly radicalize themselves. Baier and Stutz explain that it is not yet possible to say where the staff of the dissolved Pnos will end up.
The FIS is concerned that the usually discreet scene is increasingly communicating publicly. The younger groups in particular posted propaganda videos and photos of events online, sometimes in public profiles. It is unclear whether this is done out of lust for provocation or out of naivety.
However, the FIS expects an increase in right-wing extremist acts of violence for a number of reasons. The exchange of younger right-wing extremists, who have not yet been criminally prosecuted, with older, experienced exponents strengthens the individual groups’ ability to act. This exchange also increases the willingness to expose oneself and seek debate.
The unrestrainedness with which the right-wing extremist scene now presents itself to the public was demonstrated recently at an unauthorized rally by opponents of the Corona measures in Bern on January 22nd. The “Berner Zeitung” reported on thirty to forty right-wing extremists who led the demonstration. The neo-Nazi group Junge Tat was in charge, supported by members of the National Action Front (NAF), Blood & Honor and Hammerskins.
Potential for violent action
Joint actions by exponents of different groups are not unusual, the scene functions as a large network with close contacts, cross-connections and personal overlaps. The Swiss branch of the British Blood & Honor group and its violent sub-organization Combat 18 acted as control centers. The Central Swiss groups Brigade 8 and Comradeship Morgenstern also made frequent appearances, as did the Comradeship Heimattreu, which is active in the cantons of Schwyz and St. Gallen . Pnos activists maintained contact with various of these groups. However, Baier also warns against overestimating the numerical strength of the individual organizations.
So far, the right-wing extremist scene in Switzerland has lacked unifying themes and charismatic figures, the FIS notes. That is now changing in parts of the scene, which further increases the likelihood of targeted violent actions. Another indication, which is being noted with increasing concern by experts and authorities, is the arming of the right-wing extremist scene.
In August 2021, the Zurich canton police seized several weapons from members of the Iron Youth group, which is now considered dissolved, during house searches in Winterthur. According to experts, this shows that the Nazi milieu is preparing for “the worst case scenario” – the overthrow of the existing system. “The attractiveness of shooting and martial arts remains, and the skills in these areas are increasing,” states the FIS soberly. The dissolution of the Pnos is thus presented against a disturbing background.