During the far-right riot at the Washington Capitol on January 6.

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BRENT STIRTON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

  • In the United States, but also in Europe, the extreme rights seem to be doing quite well thanks to the health crisis.

  • For

    20 Minutes

    , the specialist in radicalities Jean-Yves Camus makes the observation of a middle of the ultra right certainly active but not new.

  • For him, nothing has yet been seen of the potential effects of the health and economic crisis on the supremacist movements.

The attack on Capitol Hill on January 6 gave some clues: far-right terrorism in the United States is a threat.

It is even the American government, via the Department of Homeland Security, which says so.

For the first time, he issued an anti-terrorism alert devoted to threats posed by "extremists" from within and no longer just outside the United States.

At the same time, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on January 27 for "urgent action against the neo-Nazis".

Is the health crisis giving wings to the far right Westerners? 

20 Minutes

asked Jean-Yves Camus, director of the Observatory of political radicalities at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation.

Overall, can we say that the activity of extreme right-wing groups, supremacists ... has increased recently?

In the United States, we have seen that a number of clearly supremacist groups participated in the attack on the Capitol in Washington on January 6.

But we must distinguish the mass of participants in the demonstration to which Donald Trump addressed, those who tried to break into Capitol Hill and, again, radical groups.

These were the most visible and active avant-garde of those who entered the Capitol, but it is, in a way, a three-stage rocket.

We cannot generalize, based on what happened on January 6, by saying that it was an attempted sedition organized by the supremacists.

Is the government's alert on extremist domestic terrorism over-reaction?

No, intelligence specialists are convinced that January 6 was just an appetizer and that it is now, with the Biden presidency in place, that the most serious things can happen.

Since this power is seen as illegitimate not only by the supremacists but also a significant fraction of the American population.

We can therefore think that the most determined will try to strike him blows.

The white supremacist terrorist threat in the United States is not new.

The Oklahoma City bombing dates back to 1995 and the 1980s and 1990s saw a series of extremely serious acts committed by similar groups.

What is in contrast today is that when Donald Trump did not disown the supremacist protesters in Charlottesville in 2017, they believed they had full license to operate.

And in Europe?

There are a number of countries whose law enforcement agencies see white supremacism as a real threat.

In the United Kingdom the police are communicating about it, with an increasing number of arrests in these circles.

In Sweden, this has been a recurring problem since the early 1990s. And in Germany, the Minister of Foreign Affairs ordered, while Berlin chaired the European Union, a report on the terrorist threat from the ultra-right.

What is a strong gesture politically: it is the sign that he considers that it is a priority in terms of police action.

In France, Laurent Nunez announced that five actions, at extremely variable stages of preparation, had been foiled since 2017. The ultra-right scene is estimated at 3,000 people, which is stable compared to a dozen years .

It's an environment where we tour a lot, but with a constant workforce.

Listening to you, one has the impression that the breeding ground for the ultra right is there, very present, but that the health and economic crisis is not there for much in the end?

I think the real issues lie ahead.

For now, the National Gathering has had a very strong position on the health crisis, it denounced a state lie during the first confinement, but it has never called for demonstrations.

This is why we have not had demonstrations like in Germany.

There the AfD (Alternative for Germany, the main far-right party) has chosen to support and participate in these demonstrations.

I am convinced that the RN will continue on this path which consists in opposing but not recommending disobedience, demonstrations or the transgression of barrier gestures.

It is a question of consistency with the demonization policy.

There are a few small groups trying to overflow the RN on its right but the mayonnaise does not take.

We cannot exclude that things will change for two reasons.

The first is that in my opinion the social acceptability of a third confinement is still questionable.

Many people, very far from the extreme right groups, are very reluctant to do so.

And the second is that we do not measure the extent of the damage that the crisis will do on the economic fabric, the job market, on SMEs, on traders and artisans.

It may well be that, when we wake up after the health crisis, the damage is more substantial than expected.

And then there is a data that should not be dismissed: with health constraints, it is not possible to do anything other than small events.

There are obvious organizational difficulties.

Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, said on World Shoah Day, January 27, that "urgent action against the neo-Nazis" was needed.

What could it look like?

I can't see very well.

Because tomorrow we are not going to enact administrative measures to ban all-out against the neo-Nazis when the main danger, I insist, is all the same, again, radical Islamism.

Then I find the timing is bad.

This mania of a number of officials to use the anniversary of the liberation of the camps to talk about the contemporary problem of the far right leaves me with a bitter taste.

Of course, Antonio Guterres is more moderate, he does not speak of the extreme right but of the neo-Nazis.

Finally, the neo-Nazis in the world, that does not make many individuals.

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