A Molotov cocktail through the window of a journalist who wrote critically about opponents of the corona measures. Asbestos dumping in public places because of the arrival of windmills. A farmer on a tractor that rams the door of the provincial government during the farmers’ protests. These are just a few of the many extremist incidents in the three northern provinces in recent years.
And that number of incidents is only increasing in the Northern Netherlands, according to the Phenomenon Analysis of Extremism Northern Netherlands by the University of Groningen (RUG), published on Wednesday. Since 2018, half of the incidents annually stem from anti-government thinking. But the approach to radicalization and extremism is mainly focused on jihadism, while that plays only a limited role in the Northern Netherlands. As a result, extremism and radicalization are not widely recognized and acknowledged, researchers Léonie de Jonge, Pieter Nanninga and Fleur Valk conclude in their study.
It is the first time that region-specific research into extremism and radicalization has been conducted in the Netherlands. First of all, the researchers categorized all extremist incidents in the Northern Netherlands between 2014 and 2022 that made it to the media or court. Since 2016, there have been about 10 incidents per year, with a peak in 2021 when the researchers found 15 incidents. “It is a relatively small phenomenon in the north,” says Nanninga. “At the same time, we see an upward trend.”
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Wind farms
A striking outcome of the research is that more traditional forms of extremism, such as religious, left- and right-wing extremism, are only found to a limited extent in the North. “In recent years, we have seen more and more incidents related to anti-government feelings in regional files,” says Nanninga. The arrival of wind farms, asylum seekers’ centers and the nitrogen dossier in particular led to region-specific problems that are less common in the Randstad. “As a result, we see a broad anti-Randstad sentiment that is supported by strong feelings of social unease,” says Nanninga. The Northern Netherlands therefore offers a breeding ground for anti-government extremism, the researchers conclude.
But the approach to extremism and radicalization is mainly focused on jihadism, according to conversations the researchers had with 33 professionals in the Northern Netherlands, from police officers to municipal officials. The professionals mainly associated extremism with Syrian travelers, Salafism and asylum seekers. A father with Nazi flags at home is not reported, because “he is a sweet father,” a professional told the investigators. A girl who left for Syria was labeled an ‘extremist’, but two non-jihadist youths, who are followed by the security services, are described as ‘kids who have lost their way and have spent too much time at the computer’.
According to the researchers, this shows that anti-government feelings and radical and extreme right-wing convictions in the Northern Netherlands have increasingly normalized in recent years. As a result, these forms of extremism are perceived by professionals more as ‘specific to our society’, the researchers write. “Anti-government feelings and radical and far-right ideas are often not recognized or recognized as extremist,” says De Jonge.
Nationally, too, the focus of countering extremism is mainly on jihadism, says Nanninga. “In the latest threat assessment of the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV), attention is paid to anti-government extremism, among other things, but jihadism is still described as the greatest threat to security.”
Cross pollination
And that is problematic because the breeding ground for anti-government thinking does not just fade away. “We have examined the tip of the iceberg, but the approach should not focus on the tip, but on the iceberg,” says De Jonge. “We see the broader social discontent and distrust of the government a lot online in various extremist groups.” And those feelings don’t linger in demarcated groups. “We see a lot more cross-pollination than a few years ago, especially online, such as the extreme right that is allowed to join the farmers’ protests.”
As long as the focus of the approach to extremism and radicalization remains on jihadism, the approach to extremism does not match the phenomenon, says De Jonge: “In short, we are more likely to label someone with a beard who speaks Arabic as extremist than a farmer who rams a provincial door.” The researchers therefore conclude that as long as new forms of extremism are not recognized and acknowledged, the approach to extremism and radicalization will lag behind.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of November 23, 2022