President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday designated four left-wing groups in Europe as terrorist organizations, in line with its commitment to: crack down on the left rear Assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
All of the networks targeted by the Trump Republican administration appear to be based in Europe and do not operate in the United States. They are an anarchist front in Italy that sent explosives to the then European Commission President in 2003. The two networks in Greece are planted a bomb outside riot police An anti-fascist group whose members were charged by German authorities with hammer attacks on the Labor Office building in Athens and on neo-Nazis in Dresden.
While Europe has a long history of left-wing political violence, studies have found that political violence in the United States has become more likely to come from the right in recent decades. Ministry of Justice. however, Increase in American political attacks In recent years, a variety of opinions have been exchanged across ideological lines, culminating in the shooting death of Kirk in September. Gunman Prosecutors argue that Mr. Kirk was motivated by hostility toward Mr. Kirk’s stance on transgenderism and other positions.
The Trump administration’s online announcement asserts that “anarchist extremists are waging a terrorist campaign in the United States and Europe, conspiring to undermine the foundations of Western civilization through brutal attacks.”
What does the designation mean?
The administration’s designation would allow it to target any financial support the network may have in the United States. Most anarchist, antifa, or anti-fascist groups are not strictly organizations, but rather loose associations of individuals who join together for a specific action.
Some people only support violence against property, not violence against people. One of the Greek networks that authorities believe detonated a bomb at a government building Railway company headquarters One of the reasons no one was injured was because people were notified in advance to ensure they could evacuate. Although some left-wing groups in Europe share ideology, police seizures during arrests generally do not reveal that they share resources.
The State Department’s announcement was made in the evening in Europe, but governments in countries at war with the network did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Such group designations are not without precedent. Greece has a decades-long history of attacks by far-left and anarchist groups, some of which have targeted U.S. officials. These groups date back to the 1970s and are listed as terrorist organizations by the United States.
This is not the first time the Trump administration has targeted Antifa. Two weeks after Kirk’s assassination, President Trump signed an executive order Designates Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. The practical impact is unclear because domestic groups cannot be included on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.
In a previous executive order, President Trump directed the Department of Justice to: Investigate Act Bluethe main fundraising platform used by Democrats.
What are the four groups that President Trump is targeting?
The most prominent of the European groups targeted by the Trump administration this week is the International Revolutionary Front, also known as the Unofficial Anarchist Federation. Its existence first became known in 2003-2004 when it sent explosives to Romano Prodi, then president of the European Commission.
In 2012, members of the group shot and wounded the CEO of Italian nuclear power plant construction company Ansaldo Nucleale in the leg. The attack revived a signature tactic of 1970s anarchists known as gambizzazione, in which someone was shot in the leg with the intention of injuring and intimidating someone. Two members of the group were sentenced to 10 years in prison for the attack, an aggravated sentence for terrorism charges.
The group also claimed responsibility for letter bombs sent to former Deutsche Bank boss Josef Ackermann’s Frankfurt office, Italian newspapers and foreign embassies in 2011.
“Armed Proletarian Justice” is the name of the group responsible for a bomb placed outside an Athens riot police building in December 2023 that failed to detonate. Two months later, a bomb exploded at the Greek labor office, and a new network calling itself Revolutionary Class Self-Defense claimed credit. The company was also credited with an explosion outside the offices of the country’s main railway company earlier this year.
The last network is known as Antifa Ost, or East. Four members were convicted in 2023 of involvement in hammer attacks against neo-Nazis or suspected neo-Nazis in eastern Germany. Most recently, prosecutors filed new charges against members of the network, charging them with: Attacks on people claiming to be neo-Nazis in Budapest.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Dictator and Trump ally, designated the group a terrorist organization After Kirk’s killing, he said he followed President Trump’s example in targeting left-wing extremists.
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Associated Press writers Colleen Barry in Milan, Elena Bekatoros and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, and Gail Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
