The Jetten cabinet cannot designate ‘antifa’ as a terrorist organization. According to Minister David van Weel (Justice and Security, VVD), there is “currently” no factual information available that “sufficiently” substantiates that ‘antifa’ is a centralized (terrorist) organization, writes he wrote to the House of Representatives on Friday.
A narrow parliamentary majority (76 MPs) took office last September a motion van Lidewij de Vos (FVD), Geert Wilders (PVV) and Caroline van der Plas (BBB), who called on the cabinet to designate antifa as a terrorist organization. Parties VVD, JA21 and SGP also voted in favor of the plan.
Van Weel recalls that a judge must determine whether in a criminal sense there is a terrorist organization, or ‘a partnership, with a certain […] structure, between the suspect and at least one other person, where the purpose of that partnership is aimed at committing (specific) crimes [met een] terrorist purpose.” The minister can place persons or organizations on the ‘national terrorism sanctions list’, but Van Weel sees no reason to do so in the case of ‘antifa’.
The authors of the motion cited the United States as a source of inspiration. President Donald Trump designated ‘antifa’ by decree as a “domestic terrorist organization” a day before the Dutch motion.
Trump’s decree and the FVD motion raised questions about its feasibility. Antifa is primarily an idea or ideology, an umbrella term for various forms of left-wing activism: demonstrations, doxing (the collection or disclosure of personal data) and intimidation. Anyone can speak for ‘antifa’, because there is no central organization that chooses a leader or has a membership structure.
Charlie Kirk
It became clear at the end of last year that ‘antifa’ is a vague umbrella term. Michael Glasheen, an operations director within the FBI, could not answer questions about group size or bases of ‘antifa’ during a hearing in Congress. Nevertheless, he stated CNN that ‘antifa’ is a “major concern” of the United States’ homeland security service.
The Trump administration presented a counter-terrorism approach at the beginning of this month. “In addition to drug cartels and Islamic terrorist groups,” the plan’s authors wrote, “our national counterterrorism activities will also prioritize the rapid identification and elimination of violent secular political groups with anti-American, radical pro-transgender and anarchist ideology.”
Trump uses the broadly applicable term ‘antifa’ to criminalize activism by political opponents and initiate criminal investigations. As a reason for his approach, he points to, among other things, the murder of conservative opinion maker Charlie Kirk last September. Tyler Robinson is a suspect in that criminal case. As far as we know, he was not affiliated with any anti-fascist group.
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Antifa is primarily an umbrella term with symbolic value
